Gadchiroli Maoist attack: 15 jawans killed in IED blast near Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border 

Team Suno Neta Wednesday 1st of May 2019 06:24 PM
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The debris of the bus carrying the policemen after the attack. (Photo via Twitter)

New Delhi: At least 16 people, including 15 policemen from Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, were killed, on Wednesday, when Maoists trigged a blast using an improvised explosive device to blow up the vehicle the jawans were travelling on. The attack took place when a group of policemen from the Kurkheda Police station’s quick-response team was passing through a forested area on a private vehicle near a canal called Lendari, at around 12.30pm.

The driver of the private bus was also killed in the attack along with the 15 jawans. The attack comes hours after Maoists set on fire around 30 vehicles in the area.

This is the biggest attack on security forces in the area in a decade since Maoists killed 51 jawans in 2009, in three separate attacks in quick succession.

The deputy inspector general of police (anti-Naxalite operations), Ankush Shinde, while briefing reporters, said, “The Maoists knew well that the police parties would soon launch operations after getting the news of the burning of 27 vehicles … they had planned their ambush well in advance.”

However, Shinde also said the police didn’t rush the quick-response team to the area. He said, “We don’t rush to such spots since it is always fraught with the danger of ambush. I will have to get the ground report about where the QRT was headed.”

The attack follows the Maoists’ weeklong commemoration of “Martyr Week”. On April 22-23, 2018, the Maoists had lost 40 of their cadres in a fierce encounter with police and paramilitary forces. Since then, the insurgents vowed to avenge the killings of their fellow Maoists.

Earlier on Wednesday, the left-wing insurgents had set at least 27 vehicles of a road-building company on fire in neighbouring Gondia district of Maharashtra near Purada village. Police say the latest attacks were carried out by North Gadchiroli division of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

The prime minister, Narendra Modi, took to Twitter to condemn the attack. He said the sacrifice of the jawans would not be forgotten.

The Maharashtra chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, expressed his anguish and vowed to fight the Naxalite “menace” with “stronger efforts”.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, Sharad Pawar, has demanded the resignation of the Maharashtra chief minister. Apart from seeking Fadnavis’s immediate resignation, he, on Twitter, said, “Those who feel shame of conscience if not shame of public opinion would have resigned. But the people who are in power today are not going to do so.”

Incidentally, the Kurkheda area in the Gadchiroli Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border region has been relatively calm for long time. This attack has come as a huge jolt to the security personnel as well as the politicians of Maharashtra.


 
 

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