New Delhi/Raipur, April 4
The ambush that left 22 security personnel dead was led by some 400 Maoists who surrounded the jawans from three sides in an area devoid of vegetation and rained bullets from light machine guns (LMGs) and also used IEDs to mount the attack that went on till evening, officials said.
The Maoists carried their dead, estimated to be about 10-12, on tractor-trailers and also decamped with some sophisticated arms.
Officials said inputs were received that Naxals were conducting a counter-offensive exercise in the Jagargunda-Jongaguda-Tarrem axis and the forces were deputed to intercept and neutralise them.
The Maoists, however, drew the forces into a trap from three sides with heavy gunfire, they added. Even the rescue choppers could not land in the ambush area till around 2 pm on Saturday as heavy exchange of fire was taking place. The choppers could land only around 5 pm to pick up those who sustained injuries, the officials said.
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Members of Indian security forces carry the coffin of one of their colleague, who died following a gun battle with Maoist rebels, which left twenty-two members of Indian security forces killed and 30 others wounded, at the Central Reserve Police Forces Jagdalpur camp in Bijapur district of India?s Chhattisgarh state on April 4, 2021.
(Photo by AFP)
Police recovered bullet-riddled bodies of 20 jawans in the jungles of Chattisgarh on Sunday, raising the number of security personnel killed in a fierce gunbattle with Naxals to 22 the biggest massacre in more than a year.
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