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Tag: Chhattisgarh encounter

  • Three killed in encounter between Naxals and police in Chhattisgarh

    By PTI
    BIJAPUR: Three persons were killed in an exchange of fire between Naxals and security forces in a forest along the border of Bijapur and Sukma districts in Chhattisgarh on Monday, a police official said. It was yet to be ascertained whether the deceased were Naxals or civilians, he said, adding that there was no casualty among the security personnel.

    IG (Bastar range) Sundarraj P told PTI that the gun-fight broke out after Naxals opened fire at a newly set up police camp at Silger in Sukma along the inter-district border. “Since the past few days, a group of villagers were staging a protest in Silger, considered as a core area of Maoists, against the police camp set up last week,” he said.

    According to police, the villagers had staged the protest allegedly under pressure from Naxals. Amid the protest, armed Naxals opened fire at the camp taking cover of the villagers at around 12:30 pm on Monday, following which the security personnel retaliated, the official said, adding that intermittent firing was still underway at the spot.

    “Meanwhile, bodies of three persons were recovered from the encounter site. It was yet to be ascertained whether the deceased were Naxals or civilians,” the IG said. Reinforcement was rushed to the spot and further details were awaited, he said.

    The encounter spot is located eight to 10 km away from the site of Naxal attack that took place on April 3 in Sukma district where 22 security personnel were killed.

  • Two Maoists including a woman killed in exchange of fire

    By Express News Service
    RAIPUR: Two armed Maoists including a woman fighter were killed in a gun battle with the C-60 commandos close to Rajnandgaon district along the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border, some 150 km west of Raipur, on Thursday. 

    According to the police, on a tip-off about the presence of Maoists, a team of C-60 force left on the search operation near Kohka at Kamkheda forested terrain where the rebels opened fire on the troopers leading to an encounter. The bodies have been recovered.

    There is no report of any injury sustained by the security forces. The elite C-60 force has been constituted to counter Maoists in Gadchiroli area of Maharashtra adjoining Chhattisgarh border.

  • Assam writer slapped with sedition over post on Chhatisgarh encounter

    By PTI
    GUWAHATI: Assam writer Sikha Sarma was arrested on the charge of sedition and sent to judicial custody on Wednesday for her alleged comment in the social media on security personnel massacred by Maoists in Chhatisgarh, police said.

    Sarma had on April 5, two days after the brutal killing of the security personnel, allegedly posted on Facebook “Salaried people cannot be termed martyrs if they die during duty. In that case, an electricity department employee will also be a martyr if he dies due to electrocution. Media do not make the people emotional,” The post had stirred controversy with over 11,000 comments and at least 1,600 shares in Facebook.

    The police registered a case against Sarma under Sections 124A (sedition), 294A (keeping lottery office), 500 (defamation) and 506 (criminal intimidation) along with Section 45 (residuary penalty) of IT Act after receiving complaints from two BJP workers on Monday.

    “She was arrested last night and today we produced her before the Kamrup (Metro) district court. We did not seek police custody. She has been sent to 14 days of judicial custody,” Guwahati Police Commissioner Munna Prasad Gupta told PTI.

    On April 3, suspected Maoists killed 22 security personnel from different forces and wounded 31 others in an ambush in Chhattisgarh.

    Out of them, two CRPF personnel – Inspector Dilip Kumar Das and Constable Babul Rabha who were killed hailed from Assam which had led to public outpouring of grief in the state.

    Earlier, Sarma had faced rape threats on social media over her regular posts against the ruling BJP in the state.

    She had filed a complaint to the police on it and no action has been taken against anyone.

    In 2017, the defence and home ministries had told the Central Information Commission in response to an RTI query that there was no term as “martyr” or “shaheed” in the Army or police and instead a soldier or a policeman killed in action was called a “battle casualty” or “operations casualty” respectively.

  • Chhattisgarh encounter: Gunshot injuries show Maoists used modern weapons to ambush jawans

    Express News Service
    RAIPUR: The doctors treating the security personnel revealed that the firearm wounds among the injured jawans were not like those seen in the recent 6-7 years when the forces had exchanges with the Maoists.

    Most of the injuries had resulted due to shots from modern weapons or barrels from which a projectile is propelled through rapid burning of gunpowder. As many fifteen injured jawans were air-lifted to Raipur for emergency medical attention.

    ALSO READ | Naxals first targeted officers leading operation, likely received info from locals

    According to the Director of Ramkrishna Care hospital Dr Sandeep Dave, it is for the first time in recent years that the Maoists have wounded jawans using hi-tech modern weapons. Eleven troopers injured in Saturday’s Bijapur ambush have been admitted at Ramkrishna Care hospital.

    “All the personnel are stable and we hope they would soon be out of danger. Earlier, the wounds were mostly from country guns or improvised weapons but this time the injuries are caused by the hi-tech weapons and advanced guns”, said Dr Dave.

    A police officer based in Bastar stated that in this era of technology, the armed Maoist battalion accessing modern weapons are having an influence in the warfare.  

    ALSO READ | Why Chhattisgarh should look to Odisha for its anti-LWE strategy?

    The gunbattle last Saturday was a direct faceoff between the security forces and the trained armed wing of the CPI (Maoist) who have automatic weapons like UBGL, LMG, AK-47 and others — which mostly looted from the forces.

    “The forces during the Bijapur encounter didn’t have the weapon superiority over the Maoists as their Battalion number-one uses the modern automatic firearms. The troopers trapped in the Maoist ambush were targeted by hi-tech weapons. Engaging in a direct confrontation with the Maoist battalion is not something that happens often”, the police officer stated.

        

  • Kin of CRPF jawan abducted by Naxals stage protest in J-K, demand assurance for his safe release

    By PTI
    JAMMU: Relatives of a CoBRA commando held hostage by Naxals after a recent gun battle with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district blocked the Jammu-Poonch highway on Wednesday, demanding an assurance from the government for his safe release.

    “He is the responsibility of the government, which should take immediate action to ensure his safe return to us. We want the government to inform us about the action it is taking for his release,” Meenu, wife of abducted jawan Rakeshwar Singh Minhas, said in a fervent appeal from the protest site.

    Thirty-one jawans were injured while CoBRA commando Minhas, belonging to its 210th battalion, went missing after the gunfight that took place along the Bijapur-Sukma border on Saturday and was stated to have been taken hostage.

    ALSO READ | Maoists in Chhattisgarh release image of abducted CoBRA commando

    Twenty-two personnel from various security forces like the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) of the Central Reserve Police Force, its Bastariya battalion and those from the District Reserve Guard and STF of the Chattissgarh Police were killed in the ambush.

    In Jammu, dozens of relatives and neighbours of Minhas took to the streets and blocked the main road outside his Burnai residence on Wednesday, raising slogans of “Bring back our hero”, “Long live India” and “Shoot the traitors of the nation”.

    Officials said a police party was at the scene trying to persuade them to allow normal movement of traffic, which had to be diverted to another route.

    A purported statement released by the Maoists on Tuesday claimed that they have abducted a jawan during the gun battle in Bijapur and sought nomination of some mediators for his release.

    Asked about the statement, Meenu questioned the central government’s “silence” on the issue.

    “If a jawan is late to report to duty by just one day after leave, action is taken against him, but here he is missing since Saturday and nobody is bothered,” she said.

    She added that not a word had been received from the government or the CRPF, and whatever information they had was through the media.

    Demanding an assurance from the government for her husband’s safe release, Meenu said, “We are concerned about his safety.

    The Naxals made a claim and also came out with a written statement, and now the government should look for a mediator to bring him back.”

    “We do not have any source or approach to reach out to the Naxals. We can only make a request for his release,” she said, as her five-year-old daughter, Shragvi, stood dumb-struck nearby.

    The jawan’s younger brother, Sumit, also appealed to the government to act fast.

    “We request the government not to waste any time and bring him back. He is not on any foreign land like (Wing Commander) Abhinandan Varthaman, who returned home from Pakistan within 60 hours,” he added.

    National president of NSUI, the student wing of the Indian National Congress, Neeraj Kundan visited the family members along with J&K Congress vice-president and former minister Raman Bhalla on Monday, and facilitated a telephonic conversation between them and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.

    “I want to talk to my son. Please bring him back,” Minhas’s mother Kunti Devi, a CRPF jawan’s widow, had then told Baghel.

  • New police camps in their lair angered Maoists, says Centre on Chhattisgarh gunfight

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: When Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said that the Maoists attacked out of desperation to counter new security camps opened in their core areas, he described the possibility that many security experts were apprehending for the past few months.

    After the 2017 Burkapal encounter, security forces are employing various strategies to counter the influence and movement of Maoists.

    A remarkable attempt was to slowly increase the penetration of the security forces in LWE areas by gradually opening up new police and paramilitary camps.

    This was done mainly to cut down the area of Maoist influence gradually to a minimum. 

    By expanding the network of security camps around the Sukma-Bijapur border, paramilitary forces in conjuction with the police are slowly tightening the noose around the Maoists.

    From 2017, 24 new camps were opened up in core Maoist areas such as Pamed, Minpa, Galgam, Tarrem, Tippapuram, Usoor. Of these 24 camps, four camps were opened in February  at Tarrem, Mukram Nala, Elarmadgu and Galgam.

    “What we are doing is bifurcating and then trifurcating Maoist areas. Being able to have camps in forward areas such as Galgam, Tarrem and Minpa, allows us to launch area domination exercises in places we have never been to in such strong numbers. This is hurting the Maoists as they are being confined in increasingly smaller sectors. Saturday’s encounter is a pushback against this lasso that we have been tightening around them,” a source in the state’s intelligence department said.

    Another official said government’s decision to make transfer of tendu patta  online has hurt their ability to make essential purchases.

    “All such measures have dealt a serious blow to the Maoists, which are already grappling with an aging leadership and drying up reserves of recruits.”  

  • Chhattisgarh encounter: Seven-month pregnant wife of slain jawan hasn’t informed about her husband’s death

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: The villages of two CRPF jawans of the CoBRA battalion sunk into gloom and tears as the news of their martyrdom reached them on late Sunday evening.

    The two jawans were among 23 CRPF personnel who were killed in a Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Saturday. 

    The bodies of the two jawans — Raj Kumar Yadav, 45, of Ranoapali village in Ayodhya and Dharamdev Kumar, 32, of Thekahan Bada Gaon in Shahabganj of Chandauli district of eastern UP, were likely to arrive anytime on Monday night.

    Both Yadav and Kumar were deployed as constable and head constable in the CoBRA 210 unit of the CRPF. 

    Raj Kumar is survived by his two sons and wife Gyanmati.

    His mother Sumitra Devi is suffering from cancer.

    His wife and mother only came to know about his death when the villagers gathered outside their house. Both fell unconscious as soon as they were informed.

    A pall of gloom was also descended on the village of Dharamdev.

    Anand Kumar, younger brother of Dharamdev who was inconsolable, told the media that Dharamdev’s wife Meena Devi was seven months pregnant.

    “We have not been able to muster the courage to tell her about the tragedy,” he said.

  • Sukma encounter: Naxals first targeted officers leading operation, likely received info from locals

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: Naxals, who attacked and ambushed security force personnel in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma on Saturday, first targeted officers leading the operation against them which led to some coordination issues, sources said.

    They also said that the helicopter was requisitioned by security force personnel when they saw heavy firing from Naxals but it could not land in its first attempt. It landed at a designated area around 4 pm on Saturday which helped the rescue operation.

    ALSO READ | Naxals may have abducted missing jawan in Bijapur, says CRPF sources

    Sources said senior CRPF officers including Inspector General (IG) (Operations) and Additional Director General (ADG) had gone to Chhattisgarh from Delhi to plan a big operation in the second week of March after the forces got input about the location of Madvi Hidma, a top Naxal of banned CPI (Maoist), around Bijapur-Sukma border area.

    Top officers of CRPF as well as local police along with senior Security advisor of MHA K Vijay Kumar spent weeks in Chhattisgarh to plan the operation.

    The officer, who led the operation was second in command (2IC) of a battalion, and he has been injured in heaving firing by Naxals. A deputy commandant of CRPF got severely injured in the operation.

    From the DRG (District Reserve Guard), a sub-inspector-level official headed the team and it suffered the maximum casualties.

    The operation started on April 2 night with the participation of almost 400 personnel of central and state police forces.

    ALSO READ | Attack will be avenged, says Shah; cops to submit report to MHA on Monday

    They walked for almost 20 kilometres late at night on April 2 and were exhausted by the next morning as they reached an open area.

    Sources said that Naxals, who were following them from several kilometres, started firing at them at around 10 am on April 3.

    “After seeing very heavy firing, the first panic call was made around 10 am to send a helicopter for rescue and reinforcement. But the chopper couldn’t get a place to land and left. Around 4 pm, the chopper came again and it managed to land at a predefined place which helped in rescue operations,” a senior CRPF official told ANI.

    “Coordination was an issue since senior-most level DRG official was targeted by Naxals initially during the attack. At the beginning of the encounter, Naxals targeted seniormost officers of the forces which caused coordination issues,” a source said.

    Sources also said there is a possibility that Naxals may have got inputs about the movement of security force personnel from locals.

    Naxals, who were following troops, targeted them at a place where they had domination. Sources also hinted that locals also played a role in helping the Naxals but it is yet to be established.

    MP Nathanael, a former IG of CRPF, said there was a failure at the planning stage.”There is certainly lapses at the level of planning. This operation could have planned keeping in mind heat and other topographical factors,” IG said.

    ALSO READ | Ambush comes two weeks after peace talk call from Naxals

    Security personnel were ambushed near Jonnaguda village around noon in the encounter that broke out between security forces and Naxals along the Sukma-Bijapur border.

    At least 22 security personnel lost their lives in the attack. Around 31 sustained injuries in the encounter, Chhattisgarh Police said.

    Director-General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Kuldiep Singh, who is in Chhattisgarh to monitor the situation following the attack, on Sunday said that there was no intelligence or operational failure in the operation. 

  • Bijapur Naxal attack: Involvement of multiple agencies led to leakage of intelligence, says BJP MP 

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: Two days after 22 security personnel lost their lives in the Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh, BJP MP and Army veteran Lt General (Retired) DP Vats on Monday said that the involvement of multiple agencies led to the leakage of intelligence information.

    The BJP MP said, “Due to the involvement of multiple agencies, there was a leakage of intelligence information. Otherwise, ant-terrorist operations, anti-Naxal operations are always a surprise.”

    After Rahul Gandhi’s “intelligence failure” remarks, Vats on Monday termed the encounter a deliberate anti-Naxal operation and said that political blame games are harmful for such operations.

    The retired Army General said, “It was such a big deliberate anti-Naxal operation with 1500 central and state forces involved in it and an equal number of casualties of both the security forces and Naxals. Political blame games are harmful for Naxal operations. Such incidents were also active during the tenure of the Congress governments with casualties of big leaders.”

    ALSO READ | Chhattisgarh anti-naxal operation was poorly designed: Rahul Gandhi

    Gandhi on Monday, while reacting to Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Director-General Kuldeep Singh’s “no operational or intelligence failure” remark, said this meant that the operation was poorly designed and incompetently executed.

    “If there was no intelligence failure then a 1:1 death ratio means it was a poorly designed and incompetently executed operation,” the Congress leader tweeted tagging a news clipping of CRPF DG’s “no operational and intelligence failure” remark.

    “Our Jawans are not cannon fodder to be martyred at will,” he added.

    Stating that there was an equal number of casualties on both sides, the BJP MP said that casualties after such operations are an established norm. However, he also said that the intelligence success of the Naxals is noteworthy.

    ALSO READ | Chhattisgarh encounter: Naxals may have abducted missing jawan in Bijapur, says CRPF sources

    He further said, “This was a deliberate anti-Naxal operation and casualties are expected in such operations. Deliberate anti-Naxal operation means central or state anti-Naxal forces were attacking the Naxals. Casualties after such an operation is an established norm. There have been Naxal casualties as well that too in equal numbers. But I would say that when such a deliberate operation is planned, then there is also an Intelligence gathering. and the involvement of multiple agencies like Cobra Forces, CRPF, state machinery, and local police. Law and order is a state subject especially when the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is not in force there. In such a situation, the Intelligence success of the Naxals is noteworthy.”

    He remarked that parties should not make it a political issue. Pointing out the shortcoming of the state government, the BJP MP said that it should not be lax in such kinds of operations.

    “I would advise the state government to provide monetary incentives to the families of the soldiers killed in the operation, declare them martyrs and provide jobs to their kin, to keep up the spirits of our armed forces,” he added.

    At least 22 security personnel lost their lives while 31 sustained injuries in an encounter that broke out between security forces and Naxals along the Sukma-Bijapur border on Saturday after a party of jawans was ambushed by Maoists near Jonnaguda village. 

  • Centre determined to end Naxal menace, says Home Minister Amit Shah

    By PTI
    RAIPUR: The fight against ultras will be intensified to end the Naxal menace, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday as he took stock of the situation in the aftermath of the killing 22 security personnel in an attack by the rebels in Chhattisgarh.

    Talking to reporters after chairing a high-level meeting here on the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) situation, Shah said the sacrifices of the security personnel will always be remembered for taking this battle to a “decisive turn”.

    Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, senior officials of the state police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were present in the meeting.

    Thirty-one security personnel were also injured in the gun-battle with Naxals between Jonaguda and Tekalguda villages along the border of Sukma and Bijapur districts in the Bastar region on Saturday.

    Out of the total 22 fatalities, the CRPF lost eight men, including seven commandos of the CoBRA (CRPF’s elite unit) and one jawan of the Bastariya battalion, eight of the other deceased were from the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and six from the Special Task Force (STF).

    One jawan is still missing, officials said.

    “I want to assure the country that this fight will not be stopped, rather it will continue with more intensity till the end.

    In this fight, our victory is definite in the end,” Shah said.

    The Union minister said he paid tributes to the martyred personnel on behalf of the country, the Government of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    ALSO READ | Amit Shah, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel pay tributes to jawans killed in Maoist ambush

    Their supreme sacrifices will not go in vain.

    The country will always remember their sacrifice for taking this battle to a “decisive turn”, he said.

    “In the last few years, the fight against Naxals has reached a decisive turn and this unfortunate incident has taken the fight two steps ahead,” he said.

    Shah said during the review meeting with the chief minister and personnel of various security forces, officials themselves suggested that the intensity of this fight should not be hampered, which shows the morale of the forces is intact and high, he said.

    Shah said in the last five-six years, they have achieved success in setting up camps of security forces in the interior areas.

    “Both the central and state governments have been jointly making inroads (into Maoist strongholds). Therefore, such incidents come to fore out of their (Maoists) frustration,” he said.

    On the development front also, several works have been done, though due to the coronavirus their pace got slowed down a little, he said.

    “But, I believe that action is being taken on all the suggestions received from tribal public representatives, chief minister and MPs from the state,” Shah said.

    He said the central and state governments have been working on both fronts – to expedite the development works in tribal areas and to intensify action against the extremists.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already fixed the priority- to take this fight (against Naxals) to a logical end, he said.

    Shah further said he wanted to assure the people of Chhattisgarh and the country that after Saturday’s incident, the fight against Naxals will be intensified and will definitely be converted into a victory.

    Earlier, Shah attended the wreath-laying ceremony here to pay homage to the security personnel who lost their lives in the Naxal attack.

    It is Shah’s first visit to the Bastar region after assuming the charge of Union home minister, an official said.

    Shah is also scheduled to visit Basaguda camp of the CRPF in Bijapur where he will have an interaction and lunch with the CRPF and state police personnel there, he said.

    He will later go to Raipur and visit three hospitals where the injured personnel are admitted.

    Shah will leave for Delhi at 5.30 pm on Monday.