Naxals attack NMDC facility

Naxal guerillas struck at the mining facility of National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh and killed two jawans of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) Wednesday evening.

The incident took place at about 4.30 pm when rebels attacked a CISF post located in the deposit no 5 of the NMDC—country’s largest iron ore producer and exporter having major mining facility in the Bailadila sector mines of Dantewada district.

Of the three fully mechnaised mines that the country’s single largest iron ore producer and exporter NMDC own, two are located in Bailadila sector mines of Naxal-infested Dantewada district.

The NMDC is presently producing 30 million tonnes of iron ore, of which Bailadila sector mines share 22 million tonnes. The company stepped in the area in the later half of 1961 and since then it is actively engaged in extraction, development and exploration of many deposits.

“The Naxalites probably came in villager’s attire near the post located in Aakash Nagar and gunned down the two CISF jawans in the post,” Dantewada Superintendent of Police Ankit Garg told Business Standard. The police are investigating the sequences of the incident as to how the rebels reached the post and attacked the jawans, he added.

Only two jawans were present in the post when the incident took place. The rebels carried away the weapons after killing both the jawans, Garg added.

The CISF manning the security cover for the NMDC had gone on a high alert after the incident.