Four CRPF jawans were killed and three others injured when Naxals ambushed a road opening party (ROP) in insurgency-hit Bijapur district on Wednesday, informed Superintendent of Police, Bijapur, Prashant Agrawal.
The incident occurred in the forest between Murkinar and Cheramungi village in Modakpal area. The Maoists also took away weapons of the martyred jawans after the encounter, police told reporters.
According to the police, martyrs were identified as Amitabh Mishra (31), native of Bankura in West Bengal, Madan lal Aahkey (30) hailing from Madhya Pradesh, Diganta Baayan (28) native of Barpeta in Assam and Dilip Kumar (31) of Chandoli in Uttar Pradesh. They were all troopers of CRPF’s 168 battalion, police said.
“A ROP of the paramilitary forces was clearing the Murkinar-Cheramungi road as CRPF officials were going for some civic action programme in Cheramungi village,” SP said.
The incident occurred while the ROP was heading towards their destination when around 100 armed Naxals who were taking hide in the jungle opened indiscriminate fire on jawans killing four troopers on the spot, police said.
Soon after the inputs about incident were flashed, additional forces were rushed to the spot. The desceased jawans were constable rank troopers in the CRPF and were deployed in the anti-Naxal operations grid in the State.
The martyrs’ bodies were airlifted to Raipur, he added. Meanwhile, SP further said the insurgents have looted one SlR rifle, one INSAS rifle and one lMG (light Machine Gun) of the jawans during the gun-battle.
According to a CRPF official, three paramilitary troopers were also injured in the incident. The official suspect that some local ultras were leading the cadres during the attack.