10 policemen among 11 killed in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada

In April 2021, 22 police and paramilitary personnel were killed and at least two dozen others injured in a gunfight with Maoists in the Bastar region

Ten police personnel and a driver were killed in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district on Wednesday in the worst attack on security forces in the Maoist insurgency-hit central Indian state since April 2021.

Wednesday’s attack was the worst in Chhattisgarh since April 2021. (Sourced)

Police said an improvised explosive device (IED) was used to blow up their vehicle when the policemen were returning from an anti-Maoist operation. Visuals showed the blast left a crater at the scene of the attack.

Union home minister Amit Shah spoke to Chattishgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel about the attack and promised all possible help to the state government.

“Anguished by the cowardly attack on the Chhattisgarh police at Dantewada. Have spoken to Chhattisgarh’s Chief Minister and assured all possible assistance to the state government. My condolences to the bereaved family members of the martyred Jawans,” he tweeted.

In a tweet, Baghel called the attack saddening and said the fight against Maoists is in its last stage and that the Left-wing insurgents would not be spared. He added the police personnel were attacked when they arrived for an operation based on a tip-off about the presence of Maoists under the Aranpur police station of Dantewada.

Wednesday’s attack was the worst in Chhattisgarh since April 2021 when 22 police and paramilitary personnel were killed and at least two dozen others injured in a gunfight with Maoists in the Bastar region.

The toll was the heaviest for security forces fighting Maoists since 2017 when 25 jawans were killed in an attack. Seventeen personnel from a commando patrol were killed in an attack in Chhattisgarh in March 2020.

In 2013, Maoists felled trees to block a 20-car convoy of Congress leaders in a dense forest in Chhattisgarh before detonating a landmine and firing on the vehicles. Former Union Minister Vidya Charan Shukla and 18 others were killed in the attack.

The fresh attack in Dantewada came months after seven security personnel, including an army jawan, were killed in suspected Maoist attacks across Chhattisgarh over one week in February.

The attacks came even as the Union government maintained there has been a decline in Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) violence. In January, Shah said they aim to make the country free from Maoism before the 2024 general elections.

In December, Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai told Parliament that incidents of LWE violence reduced by 77% from a high of 2213 in 2010 to 509 in 2021.

In February, Shah chaired a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on LWE and cited a three-pronged strategy as the reason for the dip in Maoist-related incidents. He said the number of civilian and security personnel killed in LWE incidents declined to 98 in 2022 from 1,005 in 2010 while the number of districts affected dropped from 90 to 45.