Raipur: Ten policemen and a civilian were killed in the blast carried out by Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada, reports said on Wednesday. According to the latest reports, an IED attack was carried out by Naxals on a vehicle carrying District Reserve Guard personnel near Aranpur in Dantewada district.
Reacting to the Naxal attack, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said that it is ‘very saddening’ and that the Naxals won’t be ‘spared’.
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The policemen were returning from an anti-Naxal operation that was launched after intelligence inputs. The policemen belonged to the District Reserve Guard (DRG), a special force of the Chhattisgarh police that comprises mostly local tribals who have been trained to combat Naxals.
The DRG has been instrumental in several successful operations against the rebels in Bastar, a hotbed of left-wing extremism. Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke with Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel following the attack.
“The news of the martyrdom of our 10 DRG jawans and a driver due to an IED blast targeting the force which had arrived for anti-Naxal operation on the information of the presence of Naxal cadre under Aranpur police station area of Dantewada is very sad. We share the grief of their families. May their soul rest in peace,” Baghel tweeted.
The Naxals, also known as Maoists, have waged an armed insurgency against the government that has killed hundreds of people over six decades. They say they are fighting on behalf of the poorest, who have been left out of the country’s economic boom.
Earlier this month, four Naxalites, who were allegedly involved in the killing of a former village head, were arrested in the Dantewada district. Five .38-bore live cartridges, two knives, Naxalite literature and other items were seized from their possession.
The four Naxalites were nabbed by the District Reserve Guard during an anti-Naxal operation from a weekly fair in Tumrigunda village under the Barsur police station limits on April 4, Dantewada Superintendent of Police Siddharth Tiwari said.
The arrested lower-rung Naxalite cadres were active as the Local Organisation Squad (LOS) and Militia members under the Indravati Area Committee of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), the police officer said. They were allegedly involved in the killing of a former sarpanch of Himameta village and other violent incidents in the area this year, he added.
Last week, a Naxal was also killed in a gun battle with security personnel in a forest in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district. Two Naxals, one of them injured, were also apprehended following the encounter.
