Naxal ambush kills 5 in Chhattisgarh

Five security personnel were killed in a deadly Naxal ambush, suspected to have been laid to trap a senior Chhattisgarh minister, in the wee hours today in the restive Kanker district. The killed security personnel include three Border Security Force (BSF) jawans besides a policeman from District Force (DF) and a Special Police Officer (SPO). This is the first time when BSF suffered casualties while combating the red army in Chhattisgarh.

A team of 68 personnel drawn from BSF, DF and SPOs left Durg Kondal were on a routine search operation when Naxalites ambushed the party near Bhuski village, Kanker Superintendent of Police Ajay Yadav said. "The rebels opened indiscriminate firing when the security personnel reached in the range,” Yadav said.

One security person suffered minor injury. Yadav said bloodstains had been spotted indicating that some Naxalites were also killed. Before the enforcement was sent to the spot, the rebels had retreated. A senior intelligence official here told Business Standard that the rebels had probably laid the ambush to trap Chhattisgarh Minister for Forest Vikram Usendi, who was supposed to pass through the same spot this morning.