Monday, 5th April 2021
23 jawans got killed and 33 jawans got injured on this Saturday in one of the most ghastly ambushes of the Maoist ever in the Bastar. Amongst the group, there was a COBRA Commando who is missing still. On Sunday; i.e. the next day, when the reinforcement team arrived at the site of the encounter, police came across the injured jawans who had attempted to get a shelter away from the eyes of the Maoists by taking refuge in the abandoned huts where the Maoists were also sitting secretly waiting for this opportunity. The injured troops were brutally killed by means of stabbing, hacking and rifle shots…soon, a fierce warfare broke out amid the dense jungles in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district and continued for many hours on this Saturday.
Madvi Hidma, the most dreaded commanders of the Maoists exercises a stronghold in the area. His name is closely associated with each major attack and encounter in that area since the Jhiram Ghati massacre of the Congress leaders in the month of June, 2013. In the ambush of Saturday, the Maoists showered shells and bullets and triggered blasts on the troops from effectively-camouflaged, strategic positions thereby causing heavy causalities. One of the encounter survivors informed that more than 400 Maoists had streamed from the three sides to attack them. The lines of the U-Shaped ambush extended over 2km in vicinity to the Tekulguda village. Running and incessant gun warfare broke out close to the villages of Jeeragaon, Jonaguda and Tekulguda as the forces tried to retaliate finding it hard to find an exit from the ambush. Some of the jawans tried to find a shelter for their wounded colleagues in the nearby deserted village of Tekulguda but as they carried their colleagues into the village they ended up getting trapped by Maoists who attacked them with daggers.
“Blood-soaked bodies of security personnel were scattered over 1km and we could clearly see signs of their desperate struggle for life. Bullet-riddled and stabbed bodies were found in an open field and huts in Tekulguda. A few of the bodies were without trousers,” informed the locals to the TOI.
Villagers said that the Maoists had strategically erected their firing positions on the top of a hill, at a field and in the spots within the village. “The jawans were completely surrounded. All the 50-60 houses in Tekulguda were vacant as per the Maoists’ plan. Bullets and country-made mortars were recovered from the site,” they informed.
Tamradhwaj Sahu, home minister, said that about 2, 000 security personnel troops had been assigned for this particular operation, in the hearts of the Bijapur jungles where a large group of Maoists were present for a meeting. Confirming that the jawans were ambushed, Home Minister Sahu said: “Our forces fought valiantly and both sides used mortars and other sophisticated weapons.”
The news of the ghastly encounter was circulated by late afternoon on Saturday. Until night, police could confirm only 5 killings. After about 24 hrs, a 500 cops rescue team arrived at the spot equipped with drones to keep a watch on the possible ambush parties of the Maoists.
Rapidly, the count of the deaths rose. P Sundarraj, IG, Bastar range, said that the uniformed corpse of Madvi Manoja, a woman commander of the Maoist group could be recovered and an Insas rifle too. The Maoists had looted weapons from the jawans they had killed and even looted their shoes, informed the police.
Sundarraj further said that the Maoists too had experienced heavy casualties — 12 were killed and 16 were wounded. Furthermore, the insurgents moved them away in two different tractors towards the villages of Gomguda and Jabbamarka.
The News Talkie Bureau
Source:
Times of India Indiatimes