Bodies of 17 jawans recovered; toll rises to 22

Bijapur, Apr 04: Police recovered bullet-riddled bodies of 17 jawans in the jungles of Chattisgarh Sunday, raising to 22 the number of security personnel killed in a fierce gunbattle with Naxals the previous day — the biggest massacre in more than a year that also left 31 injured.
Police also recovered the bodies of three jawans killed in the encounter, an official said, adding a search operation is on in the forest to trace a missing jawan.
The dead include eight from the District Reserve Guard (DRG), seven from the CRPF’s Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), six from the Special Task Force and one from the ‘Bastariya’ battalion of the CRPF,” Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) Sundarraj P told PTI.
The missing jawan belongs to the CoBRA unit, he said.
He said the anti-Naxal operation was launched based on the intelligence inputs about the presence of Maoists of PLGA (Peoples’ Liberation Guerilla Army) Battalion No. 1 led by Hidma, a Naxal commander involved in many deadly attacks on security forces.
He rubbished reports of “a meticulously planned Naxal ambush”, adding, “Security forces fought bravely and inflicted a heavy blow to the ultras during the face-off”.
Another senior police official said the Naxals, around 400 in number, were strategically positioned on a hillock in front of Tekalguda village and around it.
The security personnel came under heavy fire following which a few moved to the deserted village to take defensive positions where the Naxals lay in wait, the official said.
Visuals from the spot showed bodies of the slain jawans lying in the field and on the village streets.
An eyewitness said the bodies of the security personnel had bullet wounds and also had wounds inflicted by sharp weapons.
Eighteen jawans were missing after five security personnel were killed on Saturday in the fierce gun battle with Naxals in a forest along the border between Bijapur and Sukma districts in Chhattisgarh, police said.
“On Sunday, bodies of 17 missing personnel were recovered during a search operation,” the official said. Some weapons of the security forces were missing, he added.
In a major joint offensive, separate joint teams of security forces, comprising over 2,000 personnel, launched an anti-Naxal operation from Bijapur and Sukma districts in the South Bastar forests, considered as a Maoist stronghold, on Friday night.
The operation was launched from five places – Tarrem, Usoor and Pamed (in Bijapur), and Minpa and Narsapuram (in Sukma), the official said.
When the patrolling team dispatched from Tarrem was advancing through the forest near Jonaguda, around 500 km from the state capital Raipur, it was ambushed by cadres of PLGA battalion of Maoists and a gun battle ensued, he said.
Chhattisgarh’s Deputy Inspector General (anti-Naxal operation) O P Pal on Saturday said some jawans, both from the police and paramilitary were reported missing after the encounter, adding efforts were on to trace them.
Pal had claimed that the Maoists suffered a huge loss in the gunfight. Only the body of a woman Naxal could be recovered from the spot amid heavy exchange of fire.