Maoists kill 26 CRPF men in Chhattisgarh

High alert sounded on Telangana-Chhattisgarh border

​Sukma (Chhattisgarh): Hundreds of Maoists on Monday massacred at least 26 CRPF personnel on Chintalnar-Chintaguppa road in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh in the bloodiest attack in the state since 2013.

According to sources, the Chhattisgarh government had set up a CRPF camp near Burkapal to provide protection to the road laying work which was taken up between Chintalnar and Chintaguppa in a bid to develop the area which is mostly influenced by the Maoists. This road work is part of the development work taken up by the government in Sukma to weaken the influence of the Maoists.

The CRPF personnel, who are stationed at Burkapal camp, every day visit the road work on foot and return to the camp at 3 pm. The Maoists, it is believed, conducted a recce over the movement of the CRPF personnel and ambushed them on Monday by exploding IEDs and without giving them any scope for recouping, attacked them with guns.

At least 26 jawans died on the spot and seven sustained serious injuries. It is believed that eight more jawans escaped from the spot and their whereabouts is not known. Out of the injured jawans, the condition of four was said to be serious.

The Chintalnar-Chintaguppa area is the strong bastion of the Maoists. It may be recalled that Maoists massacred 76 jawans at the same spot way back in 2010. On March 3, the Maoists attacked and killed 12 CRPF jawans of 219 Battalion near the same area.

According to some of the injured, at least 100 CRPF jawans were returning to the Burkapal camp after completing the road operation party duty when they were attacked.

First, the Maoists exploded some improved explosive devices and immediately started firing at them. An injured jawan said that there must be more than 300 Maoists, many of them women who attacked them. For every CRPF jawan there were four or five Maoists, he added.

In spite of the lightning attack, the CRPF jawans retaliated and fired at the Maoists killing at least five of them. In the melee, the Maoists managed to grab the weapons of the killed and injured jawans before leaving the spot.

The Chhattisgarh government started deploying more forces in the area after the attack. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh are likely to visit the place of attack on Tuesday.

Chief Minister Raman Singh expressing condolences to the bereaved families of jawans said that the government would certainly come to the rescue of the families of the jawans.

Meanwhile, Bhadrachalam ASP Sunil Dutt told the Hans India that high alert has been sounded on the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border in the back drop of Maoists attack. He said that Telangana police have been taking precautions to contain the activities of Maoists and they would be intensified.