At least 41 security personnel, including 17 CRPF men, were missing and nine injured in a fierce gunbattle with naxals in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.
RAIPUR: At least 41 security personnel, including 17 CRPF men, were missing and nine injured in a fierce gunbattle with naxals in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.
"Twenty-two Special Police Force personnel, 17 CRPF men and two personnel of the district police are missing after the last night gunbattle with naxals in Elampatti-Regadgatta jungle, about 550 km from here," a top police official said from Dantewada on Tuesday.
"115 personnel had gone for the joint anti-naxal operation in the area. While 71 personnel came back in the night and three returned this morning, 41 are still missing," the official said.
Among the returned, nine are injured, officials said adding the condition of three of them is stated to be serious and have been shifted to a hospital in Jagdalpur, divisional headquarters of Bastar district.
Officials at the police headquarters here said some of the personnel, who had not returned back so far, had received bullet injuries on their legs.
Chattisgarh's Special Task Force and Andhra Police's 'Greyhound' assisted by Union Home Ministry's air wing have launched a search operation in the jungle bordering Andhra, a CRPF spokesman said in New Delhi.
Among the missing was an Assistant Commandant of the CRPF, who was leading the police party, sources said. "As radio communication is yet to be established, the condition of the missing force are not known," they said.
The gunbattle erupted after a 115-member strong security force launched the operation in the jungle and were fired upon by Maoists from LMG and mortar fire last evening.
The gunbattle prolonged for over three hours but high downpour created a major obstacle for the anti-naxal operation and during that period the naxals opened fire from behind, sources said.
Since then the radio communication was disconnected and the headquarters was not having any information about the forces, the CRPF sources said.
Forces from CRPF and Dantewada District Police have gone from all sides to the spot in the morning and they are waiting for information from them, the sources said.
Meanwhile, Dantewada District Superintendent of Police Rahul Sharma has also rushed with commandos for operation to trace the missing forces, police said.
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