Bhopal: Two policemen and a Doordarshan cameraperson were killed in a Naxal attack on Tuesday in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district, a fresh wave of violence ahead of November 12 voting for the first phase of Assembly elections. This was the third Naxal attack in the Bastar region in four days.
Two policemen were also injured in Tuesday’s deadly ambush which took place in Nilawaya village under the Aranpur police station, police said.
Aranpur, where the attack took place, will go to polls on November 12 for the first time since Independence.
Naxals attacked the three-member Doordarshan team when its vehicles were accompanying a police patrol party. The TV channel’s team had come to the region for election coverage.
The Naxals hiding in the jungle shouted “Media walon ko maro maro” (Kill the media people) and opened indiscriminate fire on the DD team, leading to the deaths. The rebels also took away the camera of the DD cameraman, police said.
“Police recovered 10-15 IEDs at the attack site,” said special director general of police, Naxal operations, D.M. Awasthi.
“Those killed were identified as sub-inspector Rudra Pratap, assistant constable Mangalu and DD News cameraman Achyutanand Sahu from Delhi,” said deputy inspector general (anti-Naxal operations) Sundarraj P.
Two other DD News staffers, including a journalist from Delhi, are reported to be safe.
Sahu is the third scribe to be killed by Naxals in Bastar in the last five years.
While a local journalist Nemi Chand Jain was killed by the ultras in south Bastar district of Sukma in 2013, another mediaperson was murdered by the ultras in Bijapur in Bastar the previous year.
In recent Naxal attacks, a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader was attacked in Palnar in Dantewada district on Monday and four CRPF jawans were killed in Bijapur on Saturday.
Dantewada district superintendent of police Abhishek Pallav said, “The media team that was attacked on Tuesday was planning a story on how tribal inhabitants of three villages in Nilwaya area are gearing up to exercise their franchise for the first time in three decades.”
