Twenty-six personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force died and six were injured in an encounter with Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma this afternoon. The shootout took place near Kala Pathar, near Chintagufa, around 1 pm. The men belonged to the 74 Battalion and initial reports said they were providing protection to a group of construction workers building a road and sanitising the area.
The injured men have been air-lifted and sent to Raipur and Jagdalpur for treatment. Sources in the home ministry said two of the bodies have been recovered.Following the attack, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh cut short his visit to Delhi and rushed back to Raipur for an emergency meeting.
Sukma is part of south Bastar, which for decades has suffered the Maoist menace. On 11 March, 12 CRPF men were killed and four were injured in an ambush in Sukma. The forces were providing security cover for road construction on the Bheji-Gorkha-Injiram Axis area.
After the attack, one of the biggest in the last two years, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said it was a sign of the “frustration” of the Maoists because of the “unprecedented success” of the security operations against them.
Making a statement in Lok Sabha, the minister said last year, 135 extremists were killed, 700 were arrested, 1,198 surrendered, and there was a 15 per cent drop in the number of attacks.Quoting local officers, news agency Press Trust of India reported that reinforcements have been rushed to the area from the nearest camp of the CRPF.
