Raipur – In the Chhattisgarh district of Bastar on Wednesday, a minivan carrying ten police officers and their driver was blown up by an IED, according to officials.
Around 2:00 PM, the officers claimed they were attacked while returning from an anti-Maoist operation that had been started as a result of intelligence inputs.
Nearly 450 kilometres separate the explosion’s location from Raipur, the state capital. A large crater over 10 feet deep that had separated the road was visible on TV images taken at the scene. The strike utterly obliterated the vehicle.
The police officers were members of the District Reserve Guard (DRG), a specialised unit of the Chhattisgarh police made up primarily of indigenous tribal people who have received special training to fight Maoists.
In several successful operations against the insurgents in Bastar, a hotbed of left-wing extremism, the DRG has played a key role.
Following the attack, Union Home Minister Amit Shah called with Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and pledged all assistance.
“Strongly condemn the attack on the Chhattisgarh police in Dantewada,” the prime minister tweeted. I honour the brave personnel who lost their lives in the attack. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten. My sympathies to the families of the deceased.
The news that 10 of our DRG soldiers and a driver were killed in an IED attack on the DRG force, which had arrived for an anti-Naxal operation on intelligence of the presence of Maoist cadre under Aranpur police station area of Dantewada, was described as “very sad” by Mr. Baghel. We sympathise with their families’ sorrow. God rest their soul.
The assault was the most serious in two years. At least 22 police officers were slain by Maoist fighters in April 2021 while participating in an anti-insurgency operation in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma area.
In the previous month, a Maoist attack on a bus carrying more than 20 police officers in the state’s Narayanpur district resulted in the deaths of five policemen and the injury of numerous others, according to local police.
Over the course of six decades, the Maoists, also known as Naxals, have engaged in an armed insurgency against the government that has claimed the lives of hundreds of people. They claim to be fighting for those who have been left out of the nation’s economic boom, the poorest.
Since 1967, a so-called “red corridor” has been established across central and eastern India by the organisation deemed to pose the biggest threat to the nation’s internal security. They conduct their operations against the Indian government and army out of dense forests in a covert manner.
