A day after 15 security personnel were killed in a Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Wednesday promised to hit back at the Maoists saying the government can target them as it knows where they are.

Shinde’s assertion came even as a Home Ministry note to Election Commission and Maoist-affected states had admitted that the anti-Maoist operations have not yielded results in terms of attrition among cadres in the past months.

After his arrival in Raipur on Wednesday morning, the Home Minister along with Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh paid tributes to those killed at Jagdalpur in Bastar district where the incident took place. He had a brief meeting with Singh and State Home Minister Ramsevak Paikra.

After the meeting, Shinde said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) would probe the incident.  “The attack was aimed at disrupting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls,” he said, adding “the security establishment is taking all steps.”

“We will definitely take revenge,” he said.

Asked about the government’s action plan for revenge, he said like in the past the central and state forces would jointly conduct anti-Maoist operations and hunt down the Maoists involved in the ambush. “We know where they are,” he said.

However, a Home Ministry letter on January 29 had said that for four months since October last year, the anti-Maoist operations have “not yielded results in terms of attrition among Maoists”.