Mom, I love you, I might die today: DD staffer records message during Naxal ambush
Caught in Naxal ambush, survivor says ‘ may be killed, ready to die’
Raipur, Oct. 31: “Mummy, I love you. I may be killed in this attack... I feel no fear.”
Doordarshan staffer Mormukut Sharma recorded the poignant message lying flat in a ditch, his stoic face inches away from the lens of a television camera capturing the drama around him — bullets flying above him, making sharp hissing sounds intermittently as Naxals and policemen exchanged gunfire for nearly an hour.
Mr Sharma, a 35- yearold lighting assistant of DD News, and journalist Dhiraj Kumar survived the gunfire after a Naxal ambush on a police convoy in Chattisgarh’s Dantewada district on Tuesday. But their colleague, cameraman Achyutanand Sahu, tragically died in the early minutes of the ambush when he was hit by a bullet while riding pillion with a policeman on a motorcycle.
The three- member crew from New Delhi was in the state for coverage of next month’s Assembly polls and had joined the police party travelling on eight motorcycles through a desolate and forested area on their way to Nilawaya village, about 450 km from the state capital, Raipur.
“There is a terror attack. We are in Dantewada for election coverage. While on the way, accompanied by the army ( sic), we were suddenly ambushed by Naxals,” Mr Sharma says in the message to his mother while lying on the ground.
Amidst the sound of gunfire, he is heard saying, “we are surrounded from all sides. It is difficult to survive in this situation. There are six to seven jawans.”