Journalism of Courage
Weeks before Lok Sabha elections in Bastar, Maoists launched their biggest attack on security forces in three years on Tuesday and killed 15 personnel who were pursuing intelligence inputs and looking for the extremists on the border of Bastar and Sukma districts.
Charred vehicles after Maoists attacked a joint search party of CRPF and police near Tongpal in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday. (PTI)
A villager was also killed in the attack launched by about 100 Maoists. Eleven victims belonged to the CRPF and four to the district police.
An injured is taken for treatment after Maoists attacked a CRPF search party near Tongpal in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday morning. (PTI)
The security team was deployed to provide security to the road construction work on National Highway 30 that connects Raipur to Sukma. Officials said there was “information about the heavy assembly of Maoists and the possibility of an attack” but the team of 45 personnel, which left the Tongpal police station around 10 am, may have become a soft target in the hostile terrain. (PTI)
The firing lasted less than 15 minutes and the rebels managed to loot heavy ammunition from the dead, including six AK-47s, some of which were fitted with Under Barrel Grenade Launchers, 18 magazines of the same rifle, one LMG with 10 magazines, nine INSAS rifles with 30 magazines, two SLRs with six magazines and two wireless sets.
An injured is taken for treatment after Maoists attacked a CRPF search party near Tongpal in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday morning. (PTI)
They said the Maoists surrounded the police team from both sides and fired indiscriminately near Takabada village under Tongpal police station of Sukma.
Bodies of CRPF and the police personnel who were killed in an attack by the Maoists near Tongpal in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday morning. (PTI)
At least 16 people including CRPF jawans and police personnel were reported to have been killed and several others injured in a Maoist ambush on the border of Sukma and Bastar district on Tuesday morning. (IE Photo)
Chhattisgarh DIG (Intel) Dipanshu Kabra said 11 CRPF jawans, four police personnel and one civilian killed. An assistant commandant rank officer of the CRPF is believed to be among those feared killed. (IE Photo)
A paramilitary soldier is carried on a stretcher towards a hospital after he was injured in an ambush in Chhattisgarh state, in Raipur on Tuesday.
Maoist rebels ambushed paramilitary soldiers in a brazen daytime attack on their camp in central India on Tuesday, killing 20 troops in their largest attack in almost a year, police said. (AP)
“Inspector Subhash of CRPF was leading a team of around 40 security personnel. He was also killed. We suspect that the Maoists have escaped towards Odisha border,” Chattisgarh DIG said. (PTI)
