Naxals hit after election, kill 4 CRPF jawans

Jawans retaliated and forced Naxalites to flee spot before reinforcement could rush from Bijapur-about 12 km from spot

Failing to disrupt the election process in Chhattisgarh, Naxalites on Thursday lent their fury and ambushed a party of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) killing 4 jawans in the restive Bijapur district.

Reports reaching from Bijapur said that a team of 25 jawans from the 168 battalion of the CRPF Thursday morning left Murkinaar post on a road opening mission. The CRPF had organised a civic action programme in a nearby village and senior officials were supposed to pass through the road.

Since the top authorities of the CRPF had to travel from the route, the Road Opening Party (ROP) was sanitising the area when they fell in the trap of Naxalites near Nukanpar between Murkinar and Cheramungi villages.

The rebels opened indiscriminate fire on the jawans, additional director general of police (Naxal Operations) R K Vij said.

In the first burst of fire, four jawans were hit by a spray of bullets even as other ran to take position. The police officials from Bijapur said the four jawans were killed on the spot itself. The rebels taking advantage of the situation looted 2 insas rifles and one AK-47.

The jawans retaliated and forced the Naxalites to flee the spot before the reinforcement could rush from Bijapur—about 12 km from the spot.

The victims have been identified as Amitabh Mishra (31), resident of Bankura in West Bengal, Madan Lal Aahkey (30) of Madhya Pradesh, Diganta Bayan (28) of Barpeta in Assam and 31-year-old Dilip Kumar of Chandoli in Uttar Pradesh.

The jawans were deployed on an anti-Naxal operation though the central force was also deployed for election duty in the district identified as worst insurgency infested. The rebels despite boycott could not disrupt the election process in the district that went to the polls on November 11.

The constituency witnessed a record voters’ turnout of about 41 per cent--about 12 per cent more than the polling recorded in 2008 polls.