(File Photo)

NEW DELHI: The killing of 25 CRPF men in an ambush by Maoists in Sukma in Chhattisgarh on Monday, the second major attack on a road opening party in the last one and half months, shows that the ultras are “feeling threatened” with the pace of road construction in the district.

Official sources said they had general inputs on Monday as well that CRPF men, who would be going towards Chintagufa from Burkapal camp, may come under attack.

The jawans walked inside the jungle in flank manoeuvre so that it has advantage over the enemy but it appears that Naxals had prior information about the troops .

While CRPF and intelligence agencies were still trying to understand whether there was any deviation from the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) by the troops, sources hinted that the security forces are literally walking into the death traps in this region, considered the headquarters of naxal activities.

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K Vijay Kumar, senior security adviser on Left-Wing Extremism in the home ministry, told TOI: “This particular area is the tri-junction of naxal activities in three states. Sukma has seen a lot of road construction in the last couple of years and naxals see this as their biggest enemy. CRPF, which is playing a major role in road construction in Chhattisgarh , is often coming under attack. If these roads are constructed, there will be schools, hospitals, government infrastructure and basic amenities for the locals and naxals’ basic philosophy will take a back seat.”

“They are feeling threatened and that’s why they are indulging in targeted attacks on CRPF,” he added. The home ministry had given the go-ahead for an ambitious project of constructing 5,412 km of roads in the 44 worst-affected districts in naxal belt in Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, Bengal and MP.

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