Twelve CRPF troopers were killed and half a dozen injured when Maoists ambushed them in Chhattigarh's Sukma district on Monday afternoon, authorities said.
The guerrillas, who were in hiding, opened indiscriminate fire when the members of the Central Reserve Police Force 74th Battalion reached a forested area in Kala Pathar near Chintagufa around 1.30 p.m.
A police officer said the troopers, who formed a 99-member Road Opening Party, were readying for lunch when they came under a volley of gun fire. The Maoists also hurled hand grenades.
Eleven men were killed instantly and another critically wounded trooper succumbed to his injuries in a Raipur hospital.
The ambush triggered a major gun battle between the Maoists and the CRPF.
The six troopers who were wounded and have been warded in hospitals include Assistant Sub-Inspector R.P. Hembram and Constables Swaroop Kumar, Mohinder Singh, Jitendra Kumar, Sher Mohammed and Latoo Oraon.
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Oraon is in critical condition while the others were said to be out of danger.
"The injured were evacuated by helicopter," CRPF Deputy Inspector General M. Dinakaran told IANS.
Sukma Senior Superintendent of Police Jitendra Shukla confirmed the 12 deaths.
This is the same area where a Maoist carnage in 2010 left 76 CRPF troopers dead. At least 12 CRPF men were also killed in a similar Maoist attack in Sukma early this year.
Monday's killings forced Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh to cut short his trip to Delhi where he had gone to attend a NITI Aayog meeting and fly back to Raipur.
--IANS
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