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Two ITBP personnel killed in Chhattisgarh Maoist attack
Intelligence inputs suggested that the Maoists were near the ITBP camp for the past one week, people familiar with the matter said.
An assistant commandant and an assistant sub-inspector of the 45th battalion of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police were killed in a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district on Friday, officials said.
A small action team of Maoists attacked a team of the paramilitary personnel who were on an area domination exercise around 600 metres from their camp in Kadameta, under the Chhotedonger police station limits in the Bastar region, senior officials said.
“The gunfight lasted for about 30 minutes,” Bastar inspector general of police Sundarraj P said. The Maoists looted an AK-47 rifle, two bullet proof jackets and a wireless set of the security personnel before fleeing the area, he said.
The slain officers were identified as assistant commandant Sudhakar Shinde, 45, and assistant sub-inspector Gurmukh Singh, 40. Their bodies will be sent to their homes after a wreath laying ceremony in Narayanpur, officials said.
The IG said that reinforcements have been dispatched to the area to conduct combing operations. “We are combing the jungles after the incident,” he said.
Intelligence inputs suggested that the Maoists were near the ITBP camp for the past one week, people familiar with the matter said. The events that led to the attack will be analysed, the people said.
The attack has come months after 22 security personnel were killed in a massive gunfight with Maoists in April in the neighbouring Sukma district.
In Narayanpur district earlier in March, five police personnel were killed and several others injured in an IED attack on a bus they were travelling in.
