After a prolonged period of peace in the Naxal-hit Chhattisgarh, the Red rebels orchestrated a bloodbath on Saturday in a forested patch of Sukma district and gunned down seven Special Task Force (STF) jawans of the State Police and wounded at least 12 others, a senior police officer said.
“The STF jawans were on a search operation when over 100 heavily-armed Naxals surrounded them and opened indiscriminate fire from three separate places,” said Additional Director General of Police (ADG) RK Vij.
“Seven brave STF jawans have been martyred and at least 12 others were injured in the gun battle, which went on for roughly two hours, in an area which is inaccessible by road and also lacks communication facilities,” he added. The attack site is located about 450 km south of the State capital Raipur. The 12 injured jawans were airlifted to Jagdalpur, headquarters of Bastar region which has been plagued by Naxal violence since late 1980s.
A CRPF contingent was also rushed to the attack site to track down the insurgents. The attack has come in the run-up to a month-long drive — lok Suraj Abhiyan — which is scheduled to be launched by Chief Minister Raman Singh in Bastar on Monday.
As part of the drive, the entire Cabinet and top Government officials will conduct surprise inspection of both rural or urban areas in order to gauge the pace of development at local level. Meanwhile, the Opposition Congress took a swipe at Raman government for killings of STF jawans and held the BJP regime in the state responsible for Rsspurt in Naxal violence,’.
“During the 11-year regime of the Raman Government, insurgency has picked up and Naxals managed to expand their base, the Government has shown no intent to fight insurgency despite it has all resources such as UAV,” a statement of Congress alleged.