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We are saddened but not afraid, say families of slain jawans
RAIPUR /BIJAPUR: We are mourning the deaths but the villagers are very angry after the attack, said Bheema Sodhi, the elder brother of Narayan Sodhi who was killed in a Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Saturday
RAIPUR /BIJAPUR:
We are mourning the deaths but the villagers are very angry after the attack, said Bheema Sodhi, the elder brother of Narayan Sodhi who was killed in a Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Saturday.
Sodhi was among the 22 security personnel killed in the attack in which around 31 others sustained injuries.
“We were five brothers and out of that four are serving as policemen -- fighting against Maoists. We are saddened and mourning the loss of my brother but we are not afraid...The locals and villagers are very angry after the attack as many young tribals from the village have joined the security forces in last few years,” Bheema said. The brothers hailed from Kunnur village in Bijapur district.
Narayan is survived by his wife and four children.
On Saturday, five security personnel were said to have been killed shortly after about 1,700 men launched a combing operation for Maoist commander Madvi Hidma. However, with the discovery of 17 more bodies on Sunday, the death toll climbed to 22, making it the worst such incident in four years. One jawan was missing after the attack.
The police said that out of the 22 jawans killed in the attack, eight were from district reserve guard, six CoBRA commandos, six special task force (STF) members, and one jawan of the “Bastariya” battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
A soldier from the CRPF’s newly formed Bastariya Battalion, Somiaya Mandavi, was also killed in the ambush.
Mandavi, a native of Awaapalli village, joined the CRPF five years ago.
“He got married three years ago and had a 10-month-old son. Somiaya recently built a house and was planning a house warming party after his return,” said his brother Shankar Mandavi.
“After joining the force, he changed the fortune of our family. We don’t know what would happen to us now,” he said.
Residents of Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Andhra Pradesh were also among the security personnel killed in the attack.
Chief ministers of several states including UP’s Yogi Adityanath and Assam’s Sarbanda Sonowal mourned the deaths of the soldiers.
