One CRPF jawan killed, six injured in encounter with Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada; gunfight still underway

Raipur: A CRPF jawan was killed and six others were injured in a Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district Monday evening, police said. The attack took place at around 5 pm when a team of CRPF’s 231st battalion was on an area domination operation from its Kamal post towards Kondapara village under the Aranapur police station area, Deputy Inspector General (anti- naxal operations) Sundarraj P told PTI. [caption id=“attachment_3425126” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] When the patrolling team was advancing through the forest just 200 meters away from the post, a group of armed rebels triggered an IED blast and opened indiscriminate firing on them, setting off a gun-battle, he said. However, the Naxals fled when CRPF jawans launched a fierce retaliatory action, the IPS officer said. “Head constable Shashikant Tiwari was killed, while six others - head constable Praveen Kumar Singh, constables Sumit Kumar, M Harikirhsnan, Jitendra Singh Tomar, Muthu Krishnan and Pandav Kumar, sustained injuries in the attack,” Sundarraj added. On being alerted about the attack, reinforcement was rushed to the spot, 400 km from the state capital Raipur, he added. The injured personnel, one of them said to be critical, were airlifted to Raipur and admitted to hospitals here, he said. Tomar, who had sustained minor injuries, was administered treatment at his camp, the DIG added. He said security forces have intensified patrolling in the Bastar region, a Naxal hotbed, in view of the next month’s Lok Sabha polls. Dantewada district falls under the Bastar Lok Sabha constituency, which will go to the polls on 11 April in the first phase of general elections. Chhattisgarh has 11 Lok Sabha seats and they will vote in three phases on 11, 18 and 23 April.