The People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) is believed to be behind the attack. "All the casualties are due to gunshots," said a CRPF officer adding the Maoists are believed to be from company 2 of the PLGA.
In a major daring attack, Maoists gunned down 12 CRPF personnel and wounded four in a remote Red Zone area of Bejji village in Sukma district, Chhatisgarh, on Saturday morning. Following the ambush, carried out with multiple IED blasts and improvised rockets, the near 70-strong Maoist group fled with weapons of the slain commandos.
Two companies of the 219 Battalion were on their way to provide security cover for road construction when Maoists ambushed them at Kotacheru near the forests of Bankupara village around 9.10 am. "The first batch of the jawans were on a Road Opening Patrol to sanitize the way for the company behind. Maoists had set up ambush up to 700 metres and around 4-5 IED blasts took place. They were trapped badly,'' said Raj Kumar Nigam, commandant of the 219 Battalion. "The other company reacted swiftly and retaliated,'' he told DNA.
The People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) is believed to be behind the attack. "All the casualties are due to gunshots," said a CRPF officer adding the Maoists are believed to be from company 2 of the PLGA.
Combing operations are currently underway to nab the Maoists. Additional reinforcement was rushed in and the injured were evacuated to a hospital in Jagdalpur. Home Minister Rajnath Singh reached Raipur late evening to pay homage to the slain personnel and take stock of the security situation. "Those who perpetrated this incident will be brought to justice,'' he said.
Maoists had also taken away ten weapons and two radio sets of the slain personnel. CRPF officials said the ambush was well-planned as they are aware of the routine deployment pattern. "It's a naxal-infested area and we take utmost care during deployment there. It was not a surprise that they laid an ambush," a senior official said.
Road building is undertaken on an urgent footing to connect the previously inaccessible villages under the stronghold of the Maoists. Over the last few years, construction of roads has allowed the CRPF to set up camps and deploy forces in the earlier liberated zones under Maoists' control. Most of the road construction in the area is done under the cover of security forces, as they are usually targeted by armed groups. On Saturday, CRPF was patrolling the road being built by the Chhatisgarh Police Housing Association in Bhejji to Injaram.
Bheji village, located in the Maoist stronghold of Sukma district, is strategically important due to its proximity on NH 30, connecting Jagdalpur to Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. The village was also among the worst hit by violence and deserted for nearly a decade in the violent clashes of the anti-Naxal movement Salwa Judum that led majority of the tribals to abandon their homes in 2005/06. Last year, under the rehabilitation project initiated by the district administration including residential housing around 56 of the 106 villagers have returned. The village now has primary school, water and electricity facilities and a field hospital built by the CRPF for medical support.
To counter the ingress by the security forces on its turf, Maoists lay traps with powerful IED on the sides of the roads, inflicting high casualties. Last year, in two separate attacks, 7 CRPF jawans were killed in a blast by IED hidden under the newly laid road at Dantewada's Melawada village and another 10 commandos belonging to the elite COBRA battalion were killed in IED blast in the jungles of Bihar's Aurangabad district.
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