17 security personnel killed & 15 injured in Maoists attack in Chhattisgarh

March 22: When the country is going through a critical phase of corona scare, Maoists killed 17 jawans of state police at Minpa jungles of Sukma in Chhattisgarh on Sunday. The fierce encounter took place in the jungle in which more than a dozen security personnel were reported missing, while 15 injured jawans were ibrought for treatment to Raipur, about 400 km north of the site of the fighting. Later on, 17 bodies of jawans of state police has been recovered by the rescue teams sent in the jungle.

The operation was launched by the police’s District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force and CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) from Chintagufa and involved 150 security personnel. A large reinforcement was sent to encounter spot later on. About a dozen Maoists sustained bullet injuries. But the search team did not find any bodies of Maoists.

Chhattisgarh’s Director General of Police (DGP) D M Awasthi said that Fifteen automatic rifles including 10 AK-47 of the security forces are missing. The encounter lasted for about three hours and there were about 300 Maoists. This was the biggest loss for security forces since April 24, 2017 when Maoists killed 25 CRPF personnel in an ambush near Burkapal in Sukma.

Prima facie it appears that naxals had been tipped off about the special forces coming in. Jawans entered the jungles of Kasalpad and were turning back after they didn’t spot any naxal movement. It was after they left the forest in this area and reached near Koraj Dongri that Naxals ambushed them. Surviving jawans have reportedly told their seniors that they came under fire when they tried to rescue their injured colleagues.