2 CoBRA jawans killed in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma as Maoist target their truck with IED

The CoBRA jawans in the truck were taking ration material for security forces stationed at the newly built Tekalgudem police camp. The truck was driven by CoBRA jawan Vishnu R (35), while another jawan, Shailendra (29), was seated next to him. When the truck neared Timapuram village at around 3 pm, the Maoists set off the IED, killing the two jawans.

Vishnu was a resident of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala and Shailendra was from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

They were part of the CoBRA force – also known as “jungle warriors” – a specialised force established to counter guerrilla and jungle warfare, specifically tailored towards addressing the Maoist insurgency. CoBRA operates as an integral part of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) framework.

Sunday’s attack between Silger and Tekalgudem comes at a time when construction of the road between the two police camps has not yet been completed.

The Tekalgudem police camp lies in an area that was once a stronghold of Battalion 1 of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA). The PLGA is an armed wing of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoists).

The area was brought under security forces’ control on January 30 after a day-long encounter. In the gunfight, two CoBRA jawans from the 201 battalion – the same as the one to which the two who died Sunday were attached – and a CRPF jawan were killed by snipers of the PLGA. Several Maoists were also killed in the encounter.

The Tekalgudem forests have seen other attacks on security forces in the past, with 23 jawans killed in an encounter with Maoists in April 2021.

Three years later, the police camp in Tekalgudem, nearly five kilometres from Silger camp, was set up. Eighteen days after that, security forces set up another camp in Puarti village, almost six kilometres ahead of Tekalgudem.

The Puarti camp was seen as a big achievement by the government, as both Barse Deva – chief of PLGA – and his predecessor Madvi Hidma, who is now the Maoist commander-in-chief for South Bastar, come from Puarti village.

Meanwhile, Sunday also saw an encounter between Maoists and security forces in Dhamtari district, which borders the Naxal-affected Bastar region. One Maoist was killed in the encounter, police said.

Superintendent of Police for Dhamtari, Anjneya Varshney, said, “The encounter took place between Naxalities and our District Reserve Guards team approximately 100 km from the district headquarters, in the forest of village Muhkot Amjhar under Khallari police station. We have found the body of a Maoist, one round of SLR ammunition and some Naxal material. Other Maoists escaped from the spot taking forest cover.”