‘Explosives on arrowheads caused most damage’

MORE THAN 150 MAOISTS WERE INVOLVED IN THE ATTACK CARRIED OUT WITH AUTOMATIC RIFLES, HANDMADE BOMBS AND INDIGENOUS ROCKETS

It was a regular day for the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel who were part of a road opening party(ROP) on Monday afternoon guarding an under construction bridge on the Dornapal-Jagargonda road.

The ROP was divided into three units. Eight personnel were stationed on the road, 32 were on the northern side on the road and the remaining 36 were stationed on the southern side.

It was the team on the south, inside the jungle, which was attacked by the Maoists.

“The three teams of the ROP marched from the camp at around 6 am and were scheduled to return at 5 pm. They had to search the jungle alongside the road for six kilometers and guard the road construction. When they were returning to the camp, a U-shaped ambush was laid by the Maoists in which the southern part of the ROP got trapped and 25 personnel were martyred,” said DP Upadhayay, DIG CRPF , Dantewada range talking to HT.

Upadhayay further told HT that when the northern unit of the ROP tried to come in rescue of the southern team, the Maoists used villagers from the nearby Burkapal village as “human shields”.

Burkapal is about 100 meters from the encounter site and 200 meters from the CRPF camp. The total population of the village is about 700 and all of them went missing after the attack. “It was only Tuesday morning they returned and were called for quizzing,” said a senior police officer.

“The Maoists managed to enter some of the huts of the Burkapal village and started firing due to which the force got confused. When the other team started moving for rescue they used the villagers as shields and stopped them,” said Upadhayay.

According to intelligence reports, more than 150 Maoists were involved in the attack, which was carried out with automatic rifles, handmade bombs and indigenous rockets.

“This is something which is concerning that they are now using handmade rockets and indigenous explosive device on an arrow head which caused great loss,” said a senior official. Two months ago, Maoists killed the Burkapal villag head, Madavi Dulha , branding him as a CRPF and police informer which caused the villagers to stop talking to the police, sources said.

“This is true that after killing of Mandavi , villagers stopped providing us information about the movement of Maoists in the region. People stopped visiting us and stopped taking our help,” said the Dantewada DIG.

Sources added that the Maoists came to the village a few days ago and were also continuously tracking the ROP teams from the past few weeks.