BHOPAL: Continued anti-Maoists operations of Madhya Pradesh police in Maoists-infested jungles of Balaghat district suffered a jolt on Sunday, after a frontline jawan of the state police’s Hawk Force, was critically wounded in exchange of fire with the outlaws.
The anti-Maoist special Hawk Force’s special operations group (SOG) jawan identified as Shiv Kumar Sharma (a native of Morena district) was hit by a bullet fired by the outlaws in the Kundal jungles under Songuda police outpost in Balaghat district on Sunday afternoon.
The incident happened when the Hawk Force teams were on aggressive combing operations in the jungles leading to an exchange of fire with the outlaws. With the outlaws being on a higher and better vantage point, they were in a better firing position, which saw the bullet fired by them piercing into the head of the Hawk Force jawan.
Sharma was rushed by road to a hospital in the adjoining Gondia district of Maharashtra, where he is currently stable at the ICU.
The entire top brass of the MP police, include the DGP Sudhir Saxena, the ADG-Intelligence Yogesh Deshmukh and IG- law and order and anti-naxal operations Anshuman Singh flew from Bhopal to Balaghat on directions by the MP CM Dr Mohan Yadav on Monday.
The senior police officers from the state police HQ visited the hospital in Maharashtra’s Gondia district and took stock of the critically injured jawan’s condition and treatment.
The MP CM Dr Mohan Yadav also talked to the doctors at the hospital over phone and gathered information about the injured jawan and asked them to render the best treatment.
The MP police’s top brass also held a detailed meeting with the entire security mechanism engaged in the anti-Maoist operations.
Importantly, three districts of eastern MP, including Balaghat, Mandla and Dindori are categorised as Maoist-affected districts of MP, where multiple Dalams (self-sustained units of the left-wing extremists) are operating with the bigger objective of spreading up to Amarkantak plateau in Anuppur district, which will render them a central position to connect between MP, Chhattisgarh and other states.
This is the first time that the anti-Maoist Hawk Force (which was formed in 2001) has suffered a jolt in the form of a serious injury to one of its ranks in MP.
The MP police which have gunned down 20 wanted Maoists cadres in the last five years and arrested six big Maoist cadres carrying Rs 1.52 crores collective bounty, has reportedly sought two more CAPF battalions from the central government for better operationalization of its anti-Maoist operations.