The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Police party unwittingly walks into Maoist trap

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 13, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Police party unwittingly walks into Maoist trap

D. Chandra Bhaskar Rao

Over 800 armed people ambush policemen from three sides of a hillock

BHADRACHALAM: It was clear booby trap and the police party was just drawn into it as part of a major ambush plan of the Maoists, feel the police officials now on the post-mortem exercise to ascertain where it all went wrong. They were more than 100 in number and armed with AK 47s, LMGs and Insas rifles and ammunition enough to beat back any onslaught. But they failed to fight to their potential and lost some 25 of their colleagues as well as brave tribal youths drafted as SPOs to fight the Maoist cadres.

The CPI (Maoist) had a major congregation in Erraboru forests and had participation of some international delegates including Maoist comrades from Nepal. Maoist squads had for over a fortnight been intercepting vehicles at different points on Dantewada–Bhadrachalam road and reportedly collecting vegetables and provisions from trucks bound for different destinations. The police, taking it as ample indication of a bigger congregation of the naxalites, planned a major raid. Three parties of the CRPF accompanied by 88 special police officers (SPOs) joined the operation. They reached the venue in deep jungle trekking the hillocks only to find a tent with vegetable stocks and cooking utensils and a few cots abandoned.

The SPOs were, however, in no mood to retreat without firing a shot and hence advanced further into the jungle. They reached another hillock in the vicinity around 3.30 p.m. on Monday. As the CRPF men were about to divide themselves into three batches in search of the naxalites, they found the hillock surrounded by over 800 armed people- a majority of them militant tribes, who ambushed the police party from three sides of the hillock. They opened fire without giving the police any chance to take positions on the top of the hillock. Those who succeeded in crawling their way to the other side of the hillock could save their lives while 25 of them were killed on the spot. Some Nepali Maoists were also reported to have taken part in the ambush.

Alert on border

High alert has been sounded all along the interstate border with Chhattisgarh. The Maoist leadership who took part in the operations were expected to have slipped into the forests of Bhadrachalam after the incident. Hence joint operations by both Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh police are in the offing.

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