JOIN US Maoist violence returns to Chhattisgarh during election process as three men of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed by the ultras on Wednesday in Sukma, while three others were injured in the gunfire.
A large group of close to 200 men, including 90 odd commandos from CRPF’s CoBRA battalion and state police forces, were returning to their bases after accompanying a group of election officials to their polling camp. One group was slightly ahead of others when they were fired upon.
The incident took place under Chintangufa police station limits around 10:30 am when security troops were attacked by 100 armed Maoists, who came from one side of the road.
The first volley of bullets took the lives of three jawans following which others retaliated.
“Conducting elections in Bastar is a big challenge for us. We have now deployed our reserve forces. We are controlling the dominating positions and there are sufficient forces to conduct the polling on Thursday,” R K Vij, additional director general of police of Chhattisgarh in charge of Maoist operations, told Deccan Herald from Jagdalpur after reviewing the security situation.
The slain commandos have been identified as Chandrakant Ghosh, Narsimha and Ranbir S. The CRPF men belong to the 206 CoBRA battalion based in Jagdalpur. A joint cordon and search operation was launched to track the Maoists.
The attack comes at a time when the security forces are on a high alert in Chhattisgarh, considered a Maoist den.
A month ago–March 11–as many as 15 men from the CRPF and the police were gunned down by the Maoists.
In a separate incident, six security personnel were injured when a pressure bomb, planted by the Maoists, went off in Bijapur district.
The bomb went off early in the morning when a road opening party (ROP) of the paramilitary force was clearing a road as part of the election-related security in Gangaloor police station limits.
During the operation, the personnel came in contact with a pressure bomb that exploded.
The 2013 Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh passed off peacefully because of a thick security cover. “This time, the security cover is lower compared to the Assembly polls,” said Karimuddin, a resident of Jagdalpur.
For instance, there were 377 companies of paramilitary personnel in Sukma, Dantewada, Bijapur and Narayanpur for the Assembly polls.
But for Thursday’s polling in Bastar, housing all these segments, there will be approximately 140 companies of security personnel.