3 CRPF men killed in Maoist ambush

Bhopal: Three CRPF personnel and a civilian were on Friday killed when Maoists ambushed a road opening party of security forces at Keskutul, nearly five km from Bhairamgarh in Chhattisgarh’s south Bastar district of Bijapur.

According to a CRPF spokesman in Raipur in Chhattisgarh, the Naxal attack came when ten CRPF jawans were conducting sanitization of a 4.5 km route from Bhairamgarh to Keskutul on five motorcycles to ensure security to people visiting the local tribal weekly market.

Armed Leftwing guerrillas suddenly opened fire on them at a place close to Keskutul, leading to killing of three CRPF personnel, the spokesman said. Other members of the road opening party promptly took position and returned fire, leading to a fierce gun battle between them that lasted nearly one hour.

A Bolero carrying schoolchildren was caught in the crossfire while passing by the encounter site, leading to death of Zibbo Telam (15) and injury to Rikki Hemla (14).

The three slain CRPF personnel have been identified as assistant sub-inspector Madan Pal of Uttar Pradesh, assistant sub-inspector Mahadev P of Karnataka, and head constable O P Soji of Kerala. The injured girl was rushed to district hospital at Jagdalpur, headquarters of Bastar.

In another incident, a joint search party comprising district reserve group (DRG), special task force (STF) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel destroyed a Maoist camp at Kohakatola in Rajnandgaon district in Chhattisgarh.

Acting on a tip off on presence of senior Maoist leaders in the area, the joint search party raided the camp and razed it to ground.

Five weapons, including three rifles and two muzzle loading guns, and other Naxal materials were recovered at the site.