CRPF men got separated from team, became easy targets
A few villagers also claimed that the Maoists had been tracking the forces over the last two days.
Rajnath Singh and Raman Singh visit the injured at a hospital, in Raipur on Tuesday. (PTI)
The 14 CRPF personnel who died in the ambush by Maoists on Monday were part of a unit which got separated, for reasons still unknown, from the main party, at the outskirts of Kasalpad village in Sukma.
The joint team of CRPF and district forces, out on an operation led by CRPF IG H S Siddhu since Saturday, had camped near Tondamarka village on Sunday night. On Monday, as they moved towards Chintagufa base camp, one unit got isolated near an open field in Kasalpad, and was quickly surrounded by Maoists at around 10 am.
“We do not know how this party got isolated. It’s a matter of enquiry,” Siddhu told The Indian Express. Trying to reclaim areas where the state administration has not entered in the last few years, the security forces were moving into terrain that was unknown to them.
According to eyewitnesses, the Maoists — taking cover behind elevated farmlands and inside a few vacant huts nearby — opened fire on the security personnel, killing 14 CRPF men, the biggest casualty suffered by the paramilitary force on the Maoist front in the last four years. The Maoists also looted 10 AK-47s, one INSAS, one SLR, communication devices, bulletproof jackets and other devices.
Some members of the security team said the Maoists had been following the movement of the forces for the last two days, and found an easy opportunity to hit them in Kasalpad. “It was such a large operation in the forest, much easier for Naxals to track them,” said some auxiliary constables who were part of the operation.
A few villagers also claimed that the Maoists had been tracking the forces over the last two days.
Some villagers in Kasalpad alleged that the CRPF men beat them up on their return from Chintagufa, after the attack. “They said, bata Naxali kahan hain (tell us where are the Naxals),” said Podiyami Unga, a villager who suffered eye injuries.
Meanwhile, stating that the IAF had adhered to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), senior officials said the decision to not take off at 4.42 pm on Monday, when they received the call for evacuating the CRPF personnel — was taken by the local IAF and CRPF authorities.
“The ground was not sanitised and was thus unsafe for helicopter landing,” said an official, adding that the IAF task force commander in the area cleared chopper take-off at 9.28 am on Tuesday, after the area was sanitised.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh met the injured CRPF personnel in Raipur, but did not visit Sukma. On Monday, he had said that he was “personally hurt” by the deaths and “would visit the spot as soon as possible”.
Kasalpad is among the villages where residents get no PDS rations, as the nearest ration shop is 40 km away. “It’s such a long journey. For two years we have stopped going there,” said Barse Mada, a villager.
A few months back, the CRPF deployed 1,500 personnel to help the local administration carry several trucks of ration to Chintalnar. The ration, however, turned out to be rotten.
This is the third major casualty that the CRPF has suffered in Chhattisgarh this year. In March, the force lost 11 of its men on a national highway surrounded by plain fields near Tongpal in Sukma. In April, five CRPF personnel were killed when they violated all procedural guidelines and took a lift in an ambulance, which was blown in a landmine blast.
With ENS inputs, New Delhi
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