2 Police Personnel Dead Following Ambush By CPI (Maoist) Squad In Rajnandgaon District

Rajnandgaon District, February 20, 2023: Two police personnel were killed when armed cadres of the CPI (Maoist) ambushed them near a mobile check-post in Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon district bordering Maharashtra on Monday morning, police said.

The Maoists, who were carrying sophisticated weapons, (including AK-47 rifles), targeted the two unarmed cops when they had just reported for duty at the mobile check-post on the inter-state border, an area that has witnessed a Maoist attack after a long period of time, police reported.

The attack took place between 7 am and 8 am under Bortalav police station limits in Rajnandgaon district located adjoining Maharashtra, Rajnandgaon Superintendent of Police Abhishek Meena told PTI.

Following the incident, the Maharashtra Police along with their counterparts in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh launched a joint operation to check the movement of the Maoists in border areas of the three states, they added.

The mobile check-spot, located around 4km away from the Bortalav police camp, is laid on a densely-forested road that connects Bortalav to Darrekasa (Maharashtra) and has been set up to check inter-state smuggling of liquor, police said.

As per preliminary information, when district force head constable Rajesh Singh Rajput and Chhattisgarh Armed Force constable Lalit Kumar Samrath reached outside the check-post from the Bortalav camp, a small action team of Maoist cadres armed with sophisticated weapons, including AK-47 and Insas rifles, opened indiscriminate fire at them, said Deputy Superintendent of Police (anti-Maoist operation) Ajit Ogre.

An investigation will be conducted to find out why the two police personnel were not carrying their weapons, Ogre said.

The Maoists also set ablaze the motorcycle belonging to the two police personnel before escaping from the spot, located 180km from the Chhattisgarh capital Raipur, he said. After the incident, a search operation was launched in the area to track down the assailants, said the deputy superintendent of police.

“Prima facie it seems, Darrekasa dalam (squad) or platoon No. 1 of the CPI (Maoist) was involved in the attack”, Ogre added.

The site of the latest attack and its adjoining areas on the tri-junction fall under the MMC (Madhya Pradesh-Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh) zone of the CPI (Maoist) where they are trying to set up a new base, according to police.

Source : https://www.deccanherald.com/national/north-and-central/two-unarmed-cops-killed-in-naxal-attack-on-chhattisgarh-maha-border-1193212.html