The family of CRPF CoBRA commando Rakeshwar Singh Manhas, who has reportedly gone missing from the site of the Chhattisgarh ambush, hopes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will get him released like Wing Commander Abhinandan was from the captivity of Pakistan.
The ambush by the left-wing extremists in the Bijapur-Bastar forest area of Chhattisgarh on Saturday afternoon left at least 22 CRPF personnel dead and 31 injured with Manhas reportedly going missing.
Though there was no official word on him missing, the family members claimed that IBC 24 (a local channel of Chhattisgarh) informed them on Sunday morning that Manhas is alive and has been abducted by the Naxals.
Also read: Multiple failures in Chhattisgarh's Bastar
His wife Meenu Manhas hopes that the government of India will get her husband back from the captivity of the Naxals. “My husband has been serving the country for last more than nine years. He participated in several anti-terrorist operations during his posting in Srinagar,” she told reporters.
“Now it is Government’s turn to fight for its jawan and get him back from the hostage of Naxals,” she said and appealed the Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah to get back her husband just as they got Abhinandan from the captivity of Pakistan in February 2019.
Manhas, a resident of Netar Kothen in Barnai area of Jammu, had got recruited in CRPF in 2011. He was posted in Srinagar three months back before being transferred to CRPF 210 CoBRA Battalion in Chhattisgarh.
Vikrant Chib, brother-in-law of the missing jawan said that the family was in shock after claims of the IBC 24 that Manhas was the hostage of Naxals. He said that they have been contacting the CRPF Headquarters continuously on phone but there is no official word from them.
“They (CRPF authorities) are just saying that search is on for Rakeshwar, he added.
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