Recalling the incident that claimed the lives of two police personnel and one media person, Dantewada Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallav was unable to hold back his tears while expressing regret over the tragic loss of lives.
A bereaved Pallav said, "Naxals took a camera of one of the media persons and dragged the other two. My constable fought the Naxals, else two more media persons could have been harmed."
"For past 15 days, media persons were coming to remote villages to report problems of locals ahead of polls. Agitated by this, Naxals attacked them, " he added.
Dheeraj Kumar, a media person who survived the attack, said, "Cameraman Sahu was in a separate car 50 metres ahead when he was fired upon. As shots were fired at me, I fell into a pit and for 45 minutes witnessed many rounds of bullets being fired and grenades exploding nearby."
Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh condemned the Naxals for the cowardice act.
"Whenever there are elections, Naxals try to disturb the peace. It is unfortunate that a cameraman lost his life in today's attack. But we won't step back out of fear from such incident and there will be peace in the area in the coming time," he told media here.
Two Chhattisgarh police personnel and a Doordarshan cameraman were killed in a Naxal attack here on Tuesday. The Doordarshan crew and the patrol party were attacked in Aranpur village of the district.
Two jawans also got injured in the incident and have been admitted to a hospital.
Sharing details of the incident, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Anti-Naxal Operation) P Sundar Raj said: "Our patrolling party during a search operation was ambushed by Naxals in Aranpur today. Two of our personnel were killed, and a DD cameraman also lost his life. Two more personnel have been injured."He further said that the security forces and other senior officials have rushed to the scene of the incident.
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