Three CRPF men martyred and at least 15 others sustained bullet wounds in multiple fierce encounters with heavily armed leftist militants in thickly forested stretch in Chhattisgarh that ended on Friday early hours, a top police official said.
The gunfight broke out on Thursday and went on till Friday wee hours at several locations in Suma district as insurgents armed with AK-47s kept engaged CRPF’s elite jungle warfare unit CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) with heavy intermittent gun shots and a few occasional blasts.
The military unit of the outlawed CPI-Maoist opened heavy shelling on a contingent comprised of CoBRA and District Reserve Group (DRG) personnel who were combing in the area to flush out insurgents from the jungles of Dabbanarka, which is cut off from road and telecommunication in Sukma, some 500 km south from Raipur.
“The jawans retaliated strongly to militants who holed up in thick forests and kept firing on CRPF and DRG personnel, unfortunately we lost three bravehearts,’’ Special Director General (Anti-Naxal operations) DM Awasthi told The Pioneer.
The martyred jawans have been identified as constables laksham Purti, Fateh Singh and laju NS belonging to CoBRA,