Nine CRPF men were killed in an ambush in Sukma, Chhattisgarh on Tuesday by the same team of Maoists that struck twice targeting the troop in less than four hours. The sequence of events has raised questions of a “tactical error” on troop movement, sources told DNA.
With last minute changes in the travel plan after the earlier attack on Tuesday morning, a road opening party that provides security to the troop movement could not be put in place, making the CRPF men soft targets.
Following the first attack at around 7.30 am carried out by around 150 armed cadres, a scheduled visit of the Central Reserve Police Force and local police led by the Superintendent of Police (SP) Sukma from Kistaram to inspect a new camp site at Potakpalli deep inside the “core area” controlled by top Maoist leader Hidma was initially aborted.
However, since the police team led by the SP had already reached, the decision was revised and the teams decided to go ahead with the original plan, sources privy to the details said.
It was this team of the 212 battalion of CRPF headed to the newly proposed camp site that was targeted in the second attack in which the nine men were killed at around 12.15 pm barely 300 metres away from the spot where the earlier assault in the morning took place.
The Mine Protected Vehicle (MPV) they were travelling in was blasted by an improvised explosive device.
In the first ambush the troops retaliated and ensured there was no loss of life and returned safely to the Kistaram camp.
“The team fought well and launched a counter attack resulting in the Naxals fleeing. Communication intercepted also indicated that one of them was killed,” said an official.
Sources said after the first ambush in the morning the scheduled visit to the new camp site should have been cancelled, especially because there was intelligence of more than 100 Maoists present in the area.
Two recent alerts were issued about the movement of armed Maoists in the area that could target troop movement, sources said.
Those killed in the action have been identified as Assistant Sub Inspector Ram Krishna Singh Tomar, Head Constable Laxman and Constables Ajay Kumar Yadav, Manoranjan Lenka, Jitendra Singh, Sobit Kumar Sharma, Manoj Kumar Singh, Dharmendra Yadav and Chandra H S.
Last year in a similar ambush 12 troops were killed by the Maoists.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh called the "deeply distressing" and asked CRPF Director General R R Bhatnagar to rush to Chhattisgarh.
"My heartfelt condolences to the families of those personnel who lost their lives in Sukma blast. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured jawans," he said in a tweet.
Singh spoke to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh who briefed him about the incident.
He also directed Minister of State Hansraj Ahir to reach the state tonight and "review the ground situation."
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