10 CRPF men including 1 State native killed in Bihar ambush
Source: The Sangai Express / Press Trust of India
Imphal, July 19 2016:
Ten
commandos belonging to the
elite CoBRA battalion of CRPF
were killed and five others
injured after a group of 200
Naxals surrounded troops and
blew off 22 IEDs in the jungles
of Bihar's Aurangabad district.
This is one of the biggest
casualties of the elite CoBRA
unit which has been raised by
the Central Reserve Police
Force (CRPF) in 2008 for
undertaking special jungle/
guerrilla warfare operations.
Officials said the encoun-
ter started yesterday afternoon
in Dumari Nala area, under
Madanpur police station area
of the said district, in the
Maoist hotbed of the
Chakarbanda forests when
the CoBRA team assisted by
other forces launched a spe-
cial operation in the hunt for
some "top Naxal leaders"
suspected to be in the jun-
gles.
They said after the CoBRA
made the fire assault and
killed three Naxalites, they
were trapped in a "heavily
mined" area where a squad of
over 200 Maoists surrounded
the troops and blew off 22
Improvised Explosive De-
vices (IEDs) amidst firing
which led to fatal injuries to
the commandos, specially
trained in jungle warfare op-
erations by the CRPF.
"A chopper was sent
around 3.25 pm to fetch the
injured but as the area was
heavily mined, the troops
could be evacuated only by 8
pm yesterday," they said.
While eight commandos
were killed on the spot, two
others succumbed to their in-
juries later, the official said,
adding the bodies of the three
Naxals have been "recov-
ered".
"Few more Naxals are
suspected to have been killed
and the search is still on,"
they said.
Some arms and ammuni-
tion, including sophisticated
ones like two AK-47 rifles,
INSAS rifle and under barrel
grenade launcher were also
recovered from the site by the
CoBRA unit in an indication
that senior Maoist leaders
were present in the area.
Officials said five other
personnel were critically in-
jured in the fierce gun battle
that ensued after the IED (Im-
provised Explosive Device)
blast and they have now been
admitted to various hospitals.
CRPF Director General K
Durga Prasad, Inspector Gen-
eral (Operations) Zulfiquar
Hasan and other senior offic-
ers of the force have rushed
to Bihar from Delhi.
In the wake of the inci-
dent, Home Minister Rajnath
Singh spoke to Bihar Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar and
assured him of all possible
help to tackle the Maoists.
Expressing grief over the
incident, Kumar ordered
Home Department officials to
immediately pay Rs 5 lakh
compensation to the next of
kin of each deceased as per
provisions of the State Gov-
ernment.
Additional reinforcements
of the State police and CRPF
have reached the spot and a
search operation has been
launched, officials said.
All the slain commandos belonged to the 205th
CoBRA battalion which is deployed in the State for conducting
anti-Naxal operations.
The martyred CoBRA men have been identified as Head
Constables Anil Kumar Singh, a resident of Buxar in Bihar
and K Opendra Singh of Thoubal, Manipur, Constables Sinod
Kumar of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, Ramesh Kumar from
Hoshiarpur in Punjab, Diwakar Kumar from Khagariya in
Bihar, Polash Mondal from South Denajpur in West Bengal,
Deepak Ghosh of Nadia in West Bengal, Manoj Kumar of
Betul in Madhya Pradesh, Harvender Panwar of
Muzaffarnagar in UP and Ravi Kumar from Siwan in Bihar.
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