Heavily armed Maoists carried out a deadly ambush on a key national highway in Bastar district early on Saturday in which an Assistant Platoon Commandant (APC) of Special Task Force (STF) was martyred, a senior police officer said.
The attack took place at around 2 am when a contingent of STF was on operational task on the National Highway (NH) 30 in Darbha region after reports that guerrillas had blocked the highway which connects Bastar region’s key town Jagdalpur to Sukma district.
“It was a well-planned deadly ambush which trapped a bigger STF contingent, the cops displayed bravery and effectively countered Maoists in which STF’s APC Krishna Pal Singh was killed while a constable Santosh Yadav sustained injuries,’’ Inspector General of Police (SIB) Deepanshu Kabra told The Pioneer.
The attack site is very close to Jheeram Ghati where Maoists had carried out a bigger attack on Congress party’s convoy in May, 2013 in which state’s almost entire top Congress leaders were killed including state president Nandkumar Patel and former union minister VC Shukla.
local police officials informed that STF jawans fought with heavily armed Maoists for about two hours and forced them to retreat in nearby thick forests surrounded by a long stretch of a valley which has track record of Maoists-Police encounters. It was not known immediately whether Maoists sustained casualty or not but several smaller reinforcement units were dispatched to track down attackers.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Raman Singh condemned the incident and expressed serious concern over a severe damage by Maoists to a strategically important national highway in Bastar region which is made up of roughly 40,000 sq km areas.