They rode into the forest of death

RAIPUR - Around 6 a.m. a team of 120 personnel of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was getting ready in their camp for breakfast when they got an urgent message about a possible Maoist conclave in Tadmetla area of Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh in central India.

The men of the 62nd battalion had gone just a few kilometres when multiple blasts rocked the convoy and tossed their armoured vehicles into the air as simultaneously over 700 Maoist fighters opened indiscriminate fire from a hilltop.

“It was a flash attack, we were just enjoying travelling on a hilly stretch when something thundered. When I realised what it was, I saw scores of my colleagues were in a pool of blood. I immediately understood everything as the Maoists were spraying bullets on us,” Ramesh, a CRPF cop who survived and was airlifted to Raipur’s Ram Krishna Care Hospital from the battle site with multiple blast injuries, told IANS.

Another cop Viplaw, who was brought here along with Ramesh, unfolded the rest of the sequence while writhing in pain.

“It was a terrible scene, body parts were seen lying at the attack site, I don’t know how I survived because there was no escape route and gun shots were coming in from all directions,” he said.

He added: “I never dreamt of such a deadly ambush.” He informed that personnel of the 62nd battalion were on an “area domination mission” in Dantewada as a part of the ongoing offensive against Maoists.

At least 75 personnel were killed and several injured in the worst such attack by Maoists.

The incident took place about 450 km south of state capital Raipur in mineral-rich Dantewada district, considered a stronghold of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist.

It was the worst massacre since Maoists stormed an isolated police post in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district in March 2007 and killed 55 policemen.