Bhopal/New Delhi , April 6: At least 76 security force personnel were killed on Tuesday when Naxalite guerrillas used guns and explosives against a surrounded Central Reserve Police Force contingent in the Mukarna forest near the village of Chintalnar-Tarmetla in Dantewada district, which lies in Naxalite-affected Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. It was one of the most savage ambushes mounted by the Naxals.
The attack came 48 hours after Union home minister P. Chidambaram visited West Bengal and told state chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee that as far as Maoist violence was concerned, “the buck stops with the chief minister”.
It was early on Tuesday morning that the Maoists launched the attack on the CRPF personnel, who were returning from a search operation following “information” that they had received on the Naxalites. However, it was a “well-laid trap” that the security forces appeared to have walked into as the Maoists fired at them from atop a hillock.
Nearly 1,000 Maoists are believed to have been involved in the massacre, outnumbering the approximately 100 security personnel. The area where the combing operation was being carried is known to be a Maoist stronghold.
Chhattisgarh additional director-general of police (anti-Naxal operations) Ram Nivas told this newspaper that the Naxalites, who were heavily armed, ambushed a CRPF contingent in a forested area in Dantewada district on Tuesday morning. He said it would not be possible to give a full account of what happened as they were still in the process of assessing the situation.
The Naxalites detonated a landmine, triggered blasts and opened fire at the trapped CRPF men. The Maoist guerrillas outnumbered the security personnel and were able to inflict heavy casualties by surrounding the CRPF contingent. An injured jawan later said there were about 1,000 Maoist guerrillas firing at the patrol party.
An official source in Raipur said a helicopter was sent from Jagdalpur, the Bastar district headquarters, to rush those injured in the attack to hospital. Requesting anonymity, he said the CRPF contingent had gone on an “Operation Green Hunt” mission into the jungle and while returning “walked into the Naxalites’ trap and were massacred”.
He said there is something drastically wrong with the anti-Naxal operations. It will have to be investigated, the source said, including how well motivated were the CRPF men and whether or not they were given proper jungle and guerrilla warfare training before being posted in the Naxalite-affected area. Even the performance levels of their supervisors comes under the scanner, he added.
While state police officials said the security personnel were on a mission that is part of the on-going “Operation Green Hunt” targeting the Maoists, the Centre maintained it wasn’t part of this exercise.
Following the attack, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to Mr Chidambaram and also chaired a meeting of the National Security Council to take stock of the situation. Mr Chidambaram admitted that “something has gone drastically wrong” and added that the killings “show the savage nature of the CPI (Maoist)”.
The bodies of the slain security personnel are expected in the national capital on Wednesday with the Centre having dispatched an AN-32 aircraft to transport the bodies. According to the home ministry, all security personnel involved in the search operation have been accounted for though the Maoists took away all their weapons.
In Chhattisgarh, a joint team of the BSF and state police swung into action after the bloody attack and arrested 12 suspected Maoists besides seizing their weapons from the Koilibeda area in Kanker district. Belonging to the Panidobir “dalam (unit)” allegedly led by Ram Singh, the joint team caught him along with his assistant Darsu.
The security personnel were returning after their early morning operation when they were ambushed. Literally surrounded by the Maoists, the personnel found themselves taking heavy fire and also stepping on pressure bombs. Among those who fell was a deputy commandant and an assistant commandant of the CRPF.
Dantewada SP Amresh Mishra said the Naxals first blew up a vehicle carrying CRPF personnel near Chintalnar-Tarmetla village in the district. Immediately after the blast, the CRPF personnel and a few policemen tried to take cover but then came the heavy firing from hundreds of Naxals, all well-entrenched atop a hillock.
In New Delhi, Union home secretary Gopal Pillai admitted an element of failure in the anti-Naxal operation had led to the incident. He said the massacre has strengthened the government’s resolve to give a “firmer and fitting reply to the murderers”.
The home secretary, however, ruled out the use of air power in the fight against Naxalites. “I don’t think we need to use air power at the moment. We can manage with what we have. Our strategy is unfolding and we should be able to manage without air power,” he stated.
The home ministry has sought details of the intelligence received by CRPF personnel which prompted such a large number of them to enter an area which did not fall within the parameters of the planned anti-Naxal offensive by the Centre. “Some information was planted on the security personnel which was so attractive that a large team went inside the jungle,” home ministry sources said.
The Maoists laid the trap over days of planning, government sources said. A court of inquiry has been ordered into the incident to establish whether it was an intelligence failure on the part of the security forces, who probably did not verify the intelligence inputs they received nor reconnoitre the area, thus falling into the trap. It will also establish the sequence of events that led to the attack, a home ministry official said.
CRPF special director-general Vijay Raman rushed to the spot along with senior Chhattisgarh police officers to take stock of the ground situation. Speaking from the spot, he said on Tuesday evening it would not be possible to discuss anything at this stage.
A high alert has been declared in Mandla, Dhindori, Balaghat, Sidhi, Shahdol, Singrauli, and Umaria districts of Madhya Pradesh. These districts are known for Naxalite activity. One CRPF battalion has been deployed for Naxal-infested areas in the state.
Lalit Shastri and Namrata Biji Ahuja