12.3.14

Another Red Attack in Chhattisgarh




Maoists ambushed a security patrol killing 16 people, including 11 of the CRPF personnel, four state policemen and a civilian in a daring daytime attack in the worst-hit Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, a gory reminder of the 2010 Dantewada massacre in which 76 CRPF javans were killed in the same area.
The Naxals, numbering 200, walked away with arms and ammunition of the slain policemen after the encounter that lasted nearly three hours. The attack at a road construction site came exactly a month before the Lok Sabha elections in Chhattisgarh.
They struck at ‘Jeerum Nullah’, 400 km from Raipur, at around 10:15 am when a contingent of 48 joint security forces personnel was out for an operational task in the jungles of Tongapal, close to the Dantewada and ‘Jeerum Ghati’ axis, notorious for Naxal violence.
Four days ago, the Centre had warned the Raman Singh-led BJP government of “spectacular strikes” by Maoists, setting the stage for political mud-slinging in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. “The state BJP government has failed to act or do enough on the Naxal issue,” state Congress leader Ajit Jogi said after the attack. Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, however, said it was too early to fix any blame. “We will take the Maoists head on. I can’t comment right now as to whose failure it is…I condemn the attack,” Shinde told media. The ministry will be sending in more forces to the state, which will see polling in three phases from April 10.
The Congress had earlier slammed the BJP government in the state after its party’s local leaders were killed in a similar attack last May ahead of the assembly polls. The Congress had then lost the polls despite making major gains in Bastar.
On Tuesday, not far from the spot of the earlier attack in Bastar, about 200 Maoists killed 16 people in broad daylight.
Chief Minister Raman Singh was quick to press upon the Centre to double the forces for the Lok Sabha elections, saying the existing deployment was not enough. 

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