2 policemen killed, six injured in Naxal ambush in C'garh

Two policemen were killed and six others were injured in a fierce gun-battle with Naxals after the rebels ambushed a police team in a dense forest in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Sukma district today, a top official said. The skirmish started around 11 am near a rivulet in the forest between Elarmadgu and Bhejji under Bhejji police station limits, when a joint team of security forces was out on an "area domination operation", Deputy Inspector General of Police (south Bastar range) Sundarraj P told PTI. "Assistant constables Madkam Handa and Mukesh Kadthi, belonging to DRG (District Reserve Guard of police), were killed and six other jawans suffered injuries in the encounter," he said. Of the injured, four are DRG personnel and other two belong to the Special Task Force (STF) of the state police. Soon after information about the ambush came, reinforcement was rushed and injured personnel and bodies of the policemen were taken out, he said. The injured personnel were airlifted to Raipur and admitted to a private hospital, he added. Special Director General of Police (anti-Naxal operations) D M Awasthi said the team had launched the operation in the interior of Bhejji, around 500 km from Raipur, early today morning. Around 11 am, when the team was combing the forest ahead of Elarmadgu, it came under heavy fire from the rebels which led to a fierce gun-battle which lasted for about four hours, Awasthi said. The rebels were from 'Military Battalion No:1' of the Naxals which has executed several deadly attacks in south Bastar, he said. Awasthi claimed that many Naxals were also killed in the encounter, though their bodies could not be retrieved due to heavy firing from the rebels' side. In another incident in the same area, along a stretch between Bhejji and Elarmadgu where road construction is underway, Naxals killed supervisor of the construction contractor and torched vehicles engaged in the work, DIG Sundarraj said. The killed supervisor was identified as Anil Kumar, he said, adding that the combing operation was underway in the region. Last month, four police personnel were killed and nine others injured in a fierce gun-battle with Naxals in Abhujmad area of Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district.