In their first major strike of the year, Maoists killed seven jawans of the Special Task Force of the Chhattisgarh police and grievously wounded 10 others in Sukma district on Saturday.

The encounter took place near Pidmed village when 51 personnel from the Pollampalli camp, 13 km away, reached there around 10 a.m. on an “input” of a large Maoist gathering. The injured personnel were airlifted to Raipur.

Planned operation

“The bodies are at the Kankerlanka camp. We are trying to shift them to Jagdalpur as soon as possible,” Superintendent of Police D. Srawan said. “It was a proper and planned operation by the STF and not a chance face-off. We have lost a courageous [platoon] commander like Shankar Rao in the incident,” R.K. Vij, Additional Director-General of Police, Anti-Naxal operations, Chhattisgarh, said.

The other victims are head constables Rohit Sori, Manoj Baghel and Mohan Uike and constables Rajkumar Markam, Kiran Deshmukh and Rajman Netam, a police press release said.

Constables Madkam Kesa, Sanjay Lakda, Ranjeet Kumar and Arvind Kumar and auxiliary constables Kise Deva, Baddi Kanna, Madavi Lukka,Madavi Deva, Saryam Lavena and Saryam Manoj were wounded.

Emergency meet

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh called an emergency meeting of top police officials, including Director General of Police A.N. Upadhyay, at his residence here. “It was a cowardly attack by the rebels but our jawans fought bravely,” he said in a press statement. The encounter took place hardly a few kilometres from Kasalpada village where 14 CRPF jawans were killed last December. This area is the base of Maoist Battalion No. 2, headed by an emerging young tribal leader, Himda, who is a member of the Dandakaranya special zonal committee.