In an incident, 10 policemen were martyred in a Naxalite attack that took place in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh on Wednesday morning. The jawans were part of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) unit and had gone out on Tuesday night on the information of Jagdish, a hardcore Naxalite commander with a reward of 8 lakhs.
The attack took place between Aranpur-Sameli under the Aranpur police station area of Dantewada district. At around 7 am on Wednesday, an encounter took place between the police and the Naxalites. However, while the returning jawans were travelling back, their vehicle was blown up by Maoists in an IED blast. The driver of the vehicle also lost his life in the attack.
According to reports, 50 kg of explosives were used in the attack that left a deep pit on the road. The dead bodies of the martyrs were brought to the hospital for postmortem. The martyred soldiers were identified as head constables Joga Sodhi, Munna Ram Kadati, Santosh Tamo, new constables Dulgo Mandavi, Lakhmu Markam, new constables Joga Kawasi, new constables Hariram Mandavi, secret soldiers Raju Ram Kartam, Jairam Podiyam, and car driver Dhaniram Yadav.
Amritpal quizzed by IB officers in Assam's Dibrugarh jail
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has expressed grief over the attack and announced that he would cancel his visit to Karnataka on Thursday to pay homage to the martyrs. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has assured all possible help to the Chhattisgarh government.
This incident comes just a week after the convoy of Congress MLA from Bijapur, Vikram Mandavi, was attacked by Maoists, where bullets were found on the vehicle. The Naxalites' TCOC (Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign) is going on in Bastar, and the security forces are on high alert mode, with jawans being sent for searching in all the districts of Bastar.