His men have lost their lives and questions are being raised about their professional acumen against taking on Maoists, but CRPF director general Dilip Trivedi is more resolute than annoyed and ready to fight it out.
Taking heads on with the officials of Chhattisgarh police, who claimed of providing specific intelligence about the movement of Maoists in the area of Tuesday's attack, he said, "What did they (the state police officials) do? Four of their men also died in the attack who were sent by the local SHO. That should mean despite the so called intelligence they sent their men to be killed. It's common sense that it is a Maoist belt and that's why we are there to deal with them. Talking about movement of Maoists in Chhattisgarh is akin to saying if you cross border, you will find Pakistanis," Trivedi told HT three days after the Sukma attack that killed 15 security personnel.
He has hand drawn maps to show how his 45 men took on three groups of around 300 Maoists that included women who looted weapons of the dead security personnel after the attack.
"I will not allow the sacrifice of my 11 men go in vain irrespective of what people say. Everybody is talking about violation of standard operating procedures (SOPs). No SOPs were violated by my men in Sukma. The field commander is the best judge of the situation on ground and I am not going to take away the initiative from him. Field commanders can violate SOPs if it is required for operational efficiency and safety of the men," he said.
{{/usCountry}}"I will not allow the sacrifice of my 11 men go in vain irrespective of what people say. Everybody is talking about violation of standard operating procedures (SOPs). No SOPs were violated by my men in Sukma. The field commander is the best judge of the situation on ground and I am not going to take away the initiative from him. Field commanders can violate SOPs if it is required for operational efficiency and safety of the men," he said.
{{/usCountry}}The CRPF is the lead anti-Maoist force with around 30,000 personnel posted in Chhattisgarh itself.
Trivedi said that the force will constitute a court of inquiry to look into all aspects of the attack but immediate focus is on "no repeat of such attack, learning lessons from it and making it difficult for Maoists to ambush them".