Maoists ambush CRPF patrol, 25 dead & counting
300 Naxalites surround soldiers in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma region
Maoists on Monday ambushed a CRPF patrol party, killing 25 paramilitary personnel and injuring six in a gunfight in Chhattisgarh’s south Sukma region in a possible attempt to thwart the construction of a crucial road link the government believes would break the back of the insurgent group.
Local cops said the encounter took place at around 12.45 pm between the Burkapal-Chintagufa area in the middle of Maoist violence-hit south Bastar area.
As many as 90 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were part of a road-opening party (ROP) providing security to construction workers building the stretch.
“A rescue team was rushed to the spot and combing is going on. Five Maoists were also killed in the counter attack by the CRPF,” said deputy inspector-general of Dantewada, P Sunderraj. Senior police officers said that that party was having lunch when a group of over 300 Maoists attacked them. The jawans were from the 74th battalion of the CRPF, including an inspector-rank officer, who was injured in the gun battle.
“First, Naxals sent villagers to trace our location, then almost 300 of them attacked us. We also fired and killed many,” news agency ANI quoted CRPF constable Sher Mohammed as saying. “They were around 300 and we were around 150, we kept firing,” he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the attack in posts on his Twitter account. “Attack on @crpfindia personnel in Chhattisgarh is cowardly & deplorable. We are monitoring the situation closely,” the PM tweeted. “The sacrifice of the martyrs will not go in vain. Condolences to their families,” Modi said in another post.
Chief Minister Raman Singh cut short a visit to Delhi and rushed to Raipur.
Home minister Rajnath Singh tweeted that he was “extremely pained” to hear about the deaths and said his deputy — minister of state for home Hansraj Ahir —is going to Chhattisgarh to take stock of the situation.
This is the second big casualty the paramilitary force has suffered in the region in two months. On March 11, suspected Maoist rebels ambushed a similar CRPF road-opening party and killed at least 12 troopers in Sukma.
Sukma is considered among India’s worst insurgency-hit regions that has seen several decades of bloody conflict. At the centre of the fight is a 20-kilometre stretch of road. Officials say the rebels know that their only way to maintain control over the area is to block the construction of the road, which will let soldiers directly into the Maoist heartland.