One CRPF jawan killed, another injured in Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh

One CRPF jawan was killed in a Maoist attack early on Friday morning in Chhattisgarh’s Dhamtari district.

Another CRPF jawan has suffered a bullet injury on his left leg in the attack.

The skirmish took place in the forest of Chameda village when a joint team of CRPF’s 211 battalion and District Force (DF) was out on an anti-Maoist operation.

The patrolling team, comprising around 50 personnel of CRPF and 10 of District Force, had begun an operation on April 3 in the interiors of Khallari and Borai police station areas.

On Friday morning, when security forces were advancing through Chameda, around 150 km away from Raipur, a group of Maoists opened fire on them leading to a gunfight.

The deceased CRPF jawan died in the process of being evacuated from the encounter site.

A police official was quoted by news agency PTI as saying that the Maoists fled when the security forces returned fire. Reinforcements have been sent to the encounter site and efforts are on to retrieve the deceased CRPF jawan’s body and evacuate the injured personnel, he said.

This is the second Maoist attack in as many days.

On Thursday, a BSF battalion was attacked by Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district during a combing operation. Four BSF jawans were killed in the attack and two others were injured.

More details are awaited.