Naxal attack: Shah to visit Chhattisgarh, hold high-level meet

JAGDALPUR: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will arrive in Chhattisgarh on Monday to chair a high-level meeting in connection with the Naxal attack in the state's Bastar region that claimed the lives of 22 security personnel, a senior official said.

Shah will reach the Jagdalpur airport (in Bastar district) at around 10.35 am, following which he will attend the wreath-laying ceremony to pay respect to the martyred personnel at the Police Lines here, he said.

It will be Shah's first visit to the Bastar region after assuming the charge of Union home minister, he said.

In Jagdalpur, the wreath would be laid on the mortal remains of 14 security personnel, while tributes would be paid to the other deceased jawans at the Bijapur district headquarters, the official said.

Shah will later chair a high-level meeting at the Police Coordination Centre here on the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) situation.

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, senior officials of the state police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) will attend the meeting, he said.

Shah will then leave for the Basaguda camp of the CRPF in Bijapur in a chopper and 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.

Twenty two security personnel were killed and 31 others injured in the gunfight with Naxals between Jonaguda and Tekalguda villages along the border of Sukma and Bijapur districts 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.