Sixty-year-old Gajendra Mishra is a distraught man. Having lost his son Abhay Mishra, the CRPF personnel from Bihar’s Bhojpur district, Gajendra posed a question to the Maoists: “If you (ultra-Left extremists) have enmity with the Government, why don’t you kill netas (leaders)? Why did you kill my beta (son) or, for that matter, any other’s son who join paramilitary force to serve the country?”



Waiting for his son’s body to be flown to Bihar, Gajendra was seething with rage how an inept Government had been unable to corner a handful of Maoists who have created mayhem in Chhattisgarh.



“In 2010, the Maoists killed 76 jawans. Now 26. And everytime, the government comes out with the oft-repeated assurance that it would give a befitting reply to naxals. But nothing happens,” said Gajendra’s younger son Amit Mishra, who was planning to join Army but after Abhay Mishra’s martrydom, he is having second thoughts on joining the defence force.



No different is the scene at another martyr Saurabh Kumar’s house at Danapur. Saurabh was married on June 25, 2014 and has a two-year-old son, who could not make out why the family members are grieving, and how he would never be able to see his father again. “Saurabh had left for Chhattisgarh on March 19 this year and promised his young wife and son that he would return soon. Today, we are waiting for his body,” said Saurav’s father Kamlesh Singh, who is more worried how his daughter-in-law and grandson would lead their life.



Altogether six CRPF personnel from Bihar lost their lives in Monday’s Maoists attack in Chhattisgarh. Apart from, Saurabh and Abhay, four others have been identified as Ranjit Kumar of Sheikhpura, Abhay Kumar of Vaishali, Krishna Kumar Pandey of Chenari in Sasaram, and Naresh Yadav of Darbhanga.



“A pall of gloom descended here after we learnt about Abhay Kumar’s death. He was married in 2015 to a girl from Muzaffarpur.... Just don’t know how to console his young widow,” said one of his relatives in Vaishali.



Naresh Yadav’s father at Darbhanga was all the more inconsolable. “Naresh was my only son. Our world has crashed completely,” he said unable to control his emotions.