JAWANS WERE HAVING LUNCH WHEN ATTACKED
Security forces managed to save 40 civilians from the deadly assault
New Delhi, April 25: The 25 CRPF jawans who were killed in a deadly Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma were having lunch when a hail of bullets and grenades hit them fatally.
A party of about 36 troops, out of the total 99, came under the first assault after they had ventured out from Burkapal on Monday to sanitise and provide protection to a 5.5km long road construction work connecting Chitagufa in the said district, officials said.
The Maoist squad “very discreetly and with the aid of locals” kept tracking the movement of the troops. When one party of 36, out of the total three, sat down for launch, the strong squad of Naxals took them by surprise and rained heavy gun fire, they said.
The 25 CRPF jawans who were killed in a deadly Maoists ambush in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma, were having lunch when a hail of bullets and grenades hit them fatally.
While a top CRPF officer said the killed troops had “finished their lunch” and may be were not in an absolute alert mode for the next few minutes, other officials said “some of them were having their lunch” when the attack was launched around 12:30 pm.
While the slain 25 men and about six others who were injured, tried to gather their weapons or take aim at the marauding Naxals, the others on the guard duty mounted an effective retaliation and saved about 40 civilians and construction workers who were present in the vicinity of the area during the deadly assault that lasted over an hour.
Officials said as the troops of the 74th battalion of the CRPF, that came under attack, and few other similar contingents have been going out on the same track for some time and hence there was a possibility that their “presence was being tracked” by Maoist cadres.
“Our men have told us that the villagers were making movements close to them. Villagers were also taken as shields by Naxals and that restricted our fire for a while,” the officer said.