Naxals kill 3 in Doordarshan raid

A group of suspected Naxalites raided the premises of Doordarshan Kendra in Jagdalpur late last night and gunned down three jawans besides injuring another seriously.

The jawans belonged to the Chhattisgarh police and were posted in the Doordarshan transmission centre in Marenga-about 10 km from Jagdalpur, the divisional headquarters of restive Bastar region. The attack had put the authorities to probe into multi directions.

The rebels left the arms and ammunition of the jawans on the spot, pointing suspicious whether Naxalites were involved in the attack. The Jagdalpur Superintendent of Police, Mayank Sriwastava said the police were working on the direction to establish how was behind the attack.

The assailants sneaked into the Doordarshan Kendra at around 3 am Sunday by removing the fencing wire and attacked the jawans in the guard room. The policemen did not get any room to retaliate. Soon after getting information, reinforcement reached the spot. But the assailants had made a safe passage.

The senior police officials however said the attack was engineered by the Naxalites to send a message that they had reached upto border of Jagdalpur. In fact, the police had inputs about the movement of Naxalites in the area.On the other direction of Jagdalpur, Tata Steel is coming up with a mega steel plant. The site is located in Lohandiguda, about 22 km from the divisional headquarters. The rebels had made their presence in and around Lohandiguda making authorities defensive to acquire land for the steel plant.