4 cops killed in encounter with Maoists
security personnel were killed while nine others were injured in an encounter with the Maoists in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh on Wednesday afternoon.
Among those killed include two sub-inspector-rank officers of District Reserve Guard (DRG), who were engaged in a search operation, while the two others were constables.
The DRG is a unit of the state police and its personnel mostly comprise Maoists who had surrendered to the police in the past.
The incident took place at Irpanar under Orchha police station of Narayanpur district of Bastar region about 250km from Raipur.
According to the police, all nine injured were airlifted to state capital Raipur and the condition of two is stated to be serious.
Special director general of police (anti-Naxal operations) DM Awasthi confirmed the deaths and said that additional forces have been deployed to continued with the search and combing operation in the area.
Senior police officers of Bastar rushed to the spot after the incident.
Sources said that the encounter took place inside the Abhujmad jungles, which is believed to be the core operational area of the Maoists in Bastar, when a police team was out on anti- Maoist operation.
The team, comprising personnel from DRG and the Special Task Force (STF) of police, was cordoning off Irpanar forests when the exchange of fire broke out, DGP Awasthi said.
“The Maoists were more than 300 in number and the team of DRG was comparatively small. The terrains were also very difficult in that region,” said a source in the intelligence.
Sources said that some personnel were still stuck in the jungles following the attack till late evening and attempts were being made to evacuate them from the encounter spot.
After Apirl 2017, Burkapal attack, in which 25 CRPF jawans were killed this attack is biggest set-back for security forces fighting Bastar.
Meanwhile, in an another incident in Bijapur district of Bastar , two state police jawans were injured when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off.
“The condition of one among them has been reported as critical,” Bijapur superintendent of police MR Ahire said while speaking to Hindustan Times.
BASTAR/RAIPUR:Four
MAOISTS PLANNING FEWER BUT BIGGER ATTACKS IN BASTAR
Documents containing details of the last meeting of top Maoist commanders in the Darbha division, held between July 5 and July 7 and which was accessed by HT, claimed that Maoists are planning “bigger but fewer attacks” in their stronghold of Bastar in Chhattisgarh.
The documents also say that Maoists are concerned about the “strengthened intelligence” of security forces.
The extremist group is focussing on more training and plugging gaps in its internal intelligence
gathering.
The meeting discussed how the twin attacks (March and April 2017) were “successful” because the security forces lacked human intelligence in a thickly forested region where the inhospitable terrain makes policing difficult.