Two commanders of the Dandakaranya division of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), Pandu and Eitu, had led the deadly ambush on the CRPF contingent at Dhorai in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district on June 29, killing 27 jawans of the CRPF, highly placed police sources said here on Friday.
“Pandu and Eitu, listed as most-wanted in police records, had commanded at least four battalions (around 250 rebels) of Jan militia (armed rebels trained to fight the security personnel) to ambush the 66-member road opening team of the CRPF in Jharghatti jungle at Dhorai, killing 27 of them. They mobilised the local militia men barely six hours before launching the attack,” the senior intelligence officer told this newspaper.
“The rebel leaders had been tracking the movement of the contingent since morning of June 29 when the CRPF troopers set out from their camp, nearly three km from the ambush site, for road opening party for logistic movement. They waited for their return from the road opening duty at a strategic place in the jungle to ambush them at around 12.30 pm,” the police officer revealed.
As many as 20 arms and a wireless set were robbed of the jawans.