In a brazen attack ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Maoists on Tuesday killed 16 people, including 11 CRPF, four police jawans and one civilian, in an ambush near Jiram Ghati in Chhattisgarh, where they had wiped out the state Congress leadership in 2013.
Home Ministry officials said a Road opening Party (RoP) of 48 security personnel came under heavy fire around 10.20 am near Tongpal, about 8 km from Jiram Ghati.
“Over 100 heavily armed Maoists, occupying strategic positions, started indiscriminate firing and triggered landmine blasts. An assistant commandant and inspector of CRPF’s 80th battalion are believed to be among the victims. This was the first RoP and by the time the second RoP could reach the location, it was all over. Three injured personnel, including two CRPF jawan and one state policeman, were evacuated to a Raipur hospital,” officials said.
Pointing out clear violation of Standard Operating Procedures by the security personnel while conducting the RoP, officials said they had become too visible and predictable for the ultras since they were following the same formation and time for road opening exercises in the last few days near Takbada village in the same area.
A Home Ministry official said it was a textbook attack by the ultras.
“They had the advantage of location and time to ambush the security forces. They had also mined the area heavily to prevent reinforcements from reaching the spot. The Maoists looted 15 automatic weapons of security personnel. We are sending additional forces to launch operations against them,” the official said, adding that Maoists from Odisha may have sneaked into the state to carry out the attack.
On May 25, 2013, Maoists ambushed a Congress leader’s convoy, killing 27 people, including founder of Salwa Judum, Mahendra Karma, state Congress president Nandkumar Patel and senior Congress leader V C Shukla. Although there was a decline in Naxal violence in 2013 as compared to 2012, the outfit perpetrated some outrageous attacks, killing 111 last year.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde denied intelligence failure as the reason behind the ambush. Shinde said this was the second such attack in the same region and forces will retaliate strongly. Shinde is likely to visit Chhattisgarh on Wednesday.
Central intelligence agencies had issued an alert cautioning all Naxal-affected states of possible Maoist attacks in order to subvert the election process. The intelligence report accessed by Express stated that the outfit had directed its cadres to make all logistic arrangements for attacks during the polls. The intelligence input suggested that the outfit had identified leaders and vehicles engaged in electioneering.
The intelligence report said the outfit also plans to launch election-boycott campaigns in Naxal-infested areas. The ultras have formed a ‘vote bahishkar committee’ to raise issues like displacement, unemployment, arrest of Maoists and Operation Green Hunt. A Home Ministry note in an advisory had asked the Central and state forces deployed in Naxal-affected areas to be more vigilant. The advisory dispatched to all stakeholders in February had stated that security forces must remain in mission mode during the entire electoral process.
Meanwhile, sources in the state intelligence agency said two naxal leaders — Commander Surender and Commander Vinod — had conducted rehearsals in Sukma between March 5 and 9. The input was forwarded to the state and Central forces. Commander Vinod’s name had also figured in the May 2013 attack.