Kin of slain CRPF men to get Rs 38L relief

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday announced a compensation of Rs 38 lakh each to the kin of 14 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel who were killed by Maoists in Chhattisgarh.

As he announced the compensation, the home minister, who rushed to the state to take stock of the situation after Monday’s attack, said that Maoist violence is a national menace that the Centre and state governments will jointly fight.

A compensation of Rs 65,000 was also announced for each of the 15 injured personnel. “We have accepted the challenge and will succeed in tackling this menace. We have more casualties from proxy war than actual war. This incident will not deter our security forces and they will continue to march ahead in the ongoing operations,” Singh said.

The home minister immediately met Governor B D Tandon and Chief Minister Raman Singh after reaching Raipur around noon on Tuesday. He also visited the injured CRPF personnel at a hospital.

The killings were also mentioned in Parliament on Tuesday morning. In the Lok Sabha, the Congress demanded the dismissal of the Raman Singh government even as the House condemned the “cowardly” act.Maoists stole weapons

The CRPF, meanwhile, submitted a situation report in which it said that the Maoists had fled from the site after the attack with over a dozen sophisticated weapons carried by the force.

The report noted that 10 AK-series rifles, one self-loading rifle, an Insas rifle and about 400 rounds of ammunition were taken away by the ultras. Three of the AK rifles were of an advanced configuration, fitted with powerful under-barrel grenade launchers (UBGLs).

The CRPF also said it believed that over a dozen Maoists were killed in the four-hour attack.

The Chhattisgarh Police claimed the attack was planned and supervised by local Maoist leaders, who are reportedly camping in south Bastar for past few days.

“We received several inputs that dreaded Maoist leaders of Dandakaranya region were holding meeting in forests south of Bastar-Sukma, Bijpaur and Narayanpur, worried over the large number of surrenders and arrests of their cadres during the past few months,” an unnamed senior police official was quoted by PTI as saying.

Preliminary information indicates that nearly 150 armed guerrilla military cadres were positioned on three sides in the forests of Kasalpada and Elmaguda. They are reportedly being assisted by a supporting group of around 100 militia and sangham supporters of local villages, the official said.