Maoists chopped limbs,slit throats of injured CRPF men

Police today found the bodies of three youths who had been abducted by the Maoists a day after the ambush. They were accused of being police informers. The bodies,with throats slit,were thrown on a road at Edka village early this morning.

Officers who visited the Narayanpur ambush site said the Maoists adopted a strategy akin to the Dantewada ambush,aiming to eliminate the entire team of securitymen with heavy firing from an abandoned hut,tree-tops and slightly higher positions such as mud walls of paddy fields.

“Initially,the security personnel appeared to have been taken aback by the attack. Many of them were hit. But others managed to take positions and fought valiantly for almost three hours,inflicting casualties on the rebel side too,” said a senior CRPF officer.

But other officers who visited Dhaudai,where the ambush was sprung,said they had gathered information that the CRPF men were moving in two groups,each comprising 30-plus personnel. After one group crossed a nullah,they heard gunshots and saw the other group caught in an ambush. It was this second group which suffered casualties and injuries.

Sources said the first group,which had moved ahead,rushed towards the Dhaudai camp to bring in reinforcements as they suspected that the rebels could outnumber them. Even as the first group rushed towards the camp,those caught in the ambush sent wireless messages,seeking reinforcements. But by the time reinforcements reached,everything was over,the sources said.

“Trekking through hilly forests while wearing bulletproof vests and carrying weapons and ammunition is an exhausting task,particularly in extremely humid conditions. We cannot use vehicles because of possibility of landmine attacks. It is not a question of covering just three kilometres. Certainly,reinforcements take time to reach the encounter site in an extremely hostile terrain,” said a senior police officer.

There is also another account that some of the CRPF men were resting in an open field when the Maoists began firing from an abandoned hut on a nearby hillock. By the time the security forces could take positions,the rebels cordoned off the area and opened fire.

Gudsa Usendi,spokesman of CPI (Maoist) Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee,rang up the local media in Bastar to say that their action was to “check atrocities being committed by security forces” in the tribal area. He refused to confirm or deny rebel casualties,saying the “operation is still on”.

The incident took place between the hills of Jharighati and Dhaudai on the Narayanpur-Orchha road that passes through the Abujmarh hills and forests,one of the Maoist strongholds in Bastar. The Maoists call this region Mard and they consider it their “base area”. They have been running training camps and holding top-level meets in the remote forests for many years now.