Father regrets Sukma trooper died fighting 'own people'

CRPF trooper Abhay Mishra, killed in the Sukma Maoist attack on Monday, was the only breadwinner of the family. His father doesn't regret losing his son for the nation, but is pained because he died fighting "our own people".

Speaking to IANS over phone from Bihar's Tulsi Harigaon village, some 80 km west of Patna, Gajendra Mishra said he would have felt more proud had his son laid down his life fighting enemies on the border.

"It is a matter of regret that my son lost his life fighting our own people," he said, intermittently breaking down.

Constable Abhay Mishra, 24, was one of 25 troopers killed in one of the deadliest Maoist attacks at a place between Burkapal and Chintagufa in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh when 300 to 400 heavily armed Left Wing insurgents ambushed a CRPF contingent in a forested patch on Monday.

The eldest of two sons was the main source of regular income of an impoverished peasant family in Bihar. He had joined the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) three years ago and was still serving his first posting. He was scheduled to return home next month to attend a wedding.

Gajendra, in his late 50s, said the death of his son had destroyed the family.

But that doesn't stop his younger son, Amit, from dreaming about a profession his elder brother opted for.

"I want to join the Army and serve the nation. Live and die for it," Amit told IANS.

He, however, revealed that his brother was previously injured in his thigh a month and a half ago but was denied permission to return home.

"I spoke to my brother when he was hit by a bullet in his thigh. But he was denied leave and was admitted in a hospital in Raipur," Amit said.

The father said the government's anti-Maoist strategy wasn't apparently working, making troopers like his son sitting duck targets for leftist insurgents.

The security forces are equipped with modern warfare weaponry, much bigger in number in comparison to insurgents, but the father wondered how Maoists killed so many troopers in a gunbattle that last for three hours.

He questioned that if the US could kill Osama bin Laden "by entering into Pakistan and India can conduct surgical strike across in Pakistan, why don't our forces have the permission to carry out attacks on Maoists" deep inside their territories?

He said he had little hope from the government on its strategy to tackle the Maoist insurgency.

"Earlier also, a number of soldiers died but they (government) didn't do anything. In future too the government won't do anything..."

The father claimed that Abhay when he visited his home last year had shared the "pathetic condition" of the forces fighting the rebels.

"He (his son) mentioned how his senior officials had ordered them to back off after the forces had almost surrounded a group of Maoists."

(Anand Singh can be contacted at anand.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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