Tears,anger,resolve

There are also indications that standard operating procedures were ignored in this case,the CRPF men,while returning from the search operation,did not take a route different from the one they had taken when they set out. The Maoists,who had zeroed-in on a spot between Chintalnar and Tadmetla,were lying in wait.

This is an area where,barring a few pockets,there is no habitation not for almost 30 sq km around Chintagufa forest. Most securitymen sent to engage the Maoists are from outside Chhattisgarh,making the terrain both alien and hostile.

An official said the CRPF unit had been on an area-domination mission which ended on Monday evening. At night,the unit made a halt in the Tadmetla forest. The men were told to proceed to the base camp at Chintalnar the next morning via the same route they had taken initially. This was a clear violation of the SOP,the official said,pointing out that the same route is never taken twice to rule out precisely what happened.

That this region had witnessed no major Naxal violence in the last four months,particularly after operations were intensified in the forest areas of Dantewada district,may have also led to complacency. In the last four months,security forces gunned down 46 rebels and arrested many CPI Maoist cadres,including four self-styled commanders. Police casualties,on the other hand,were light.

The rebels decided to lie low,leading to talk among security forces that the Maoists,feeling the heat,had probably headed to West Bengal or other states. In Dantewada district alone,nearly 12,000 security personnel,including four battalions of CRPF,two battalions of the BSF,one battalion of Chhattisgarh Armed Force CAF,are deployed for operations.

Even during Maoist-sponsored bandhs in the last four months,the Naxalites did not indulge in any violence,except for felling trees and blocking roads in interior areas. The security forces apparently did not take the situation seriously while the Maoists utilised the opportunity to meticulously plan a major strike to inflict heavy casualty, said a senior police officer.

But why were there no casualties on the Maoist side,especially when more than 80 securitymen,almost the size of a company,were at the spot? There are different accounts. Chintagufa camps CRPF personnel are tightlipped,saying they are not supposed to talk to the media. But one of the securitymen said the Maoist planning was such that many of them could not even take positions to return fire.

In the forest,one has to take cover of the trees to take position. They knew it very well. By the time the security personnel did that,there were blasts near the trees. We were fighting an invisible enemy, said a CRPF constable.

Pramod Singh,a constable being treated for bullet injuries at a hospital in Jagdalpur,said: We were tired after the search operations in the forest. After taking rest at a place near Tadmetla,we began proceeding towards Chintalnar when a large number of Maoists launched a surprise attack. We were so tired that we could not put up much resistance. The Maoists outnumbered us. There were blasts and indiscriminate firing. I fell unconscious.

The rescue party which rushed in also came under attack. Constable Baljit Singh,among the injured,said he was in the rescue party which was trying to pull out security personnel. After the attack,the Maoists looted their weapons and fled into the forest.