Chhattisgarh tense after Maoist massacre

RAIPUR - Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh met top officials here Wednesday, a day after 26 security personnel were killed in a cold-blooded massacre by Maoists.

Raman Singh met Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Director General Vikram Srivastava and officials of the home and police departments at the Secretariat to review the security situation.

Chhattisgarh Additional Director General of Police Ram Niwas said: “We discussed how police are suffering too many casualties and if there was any need to revisit the strategy.”

“We finally reached to a conclusion with some changes in strategy and in the coming days and weeks people will notice it,” he said.

“There is no problem in coordination between paramilitary forces and state police. As far as Tuesday’s attack is concerned, we did not find any Maoist’s body. But 15-20 Maoists are feared to be killed in the retaliatory attack by the CRPF,” Niwas said.

Meanwhile, bodies of all the 26 security personnel killed in Narayanpur district Tuesday were airlifted Wednesday morning to Raipur, the state capital.

Autopsies were carried out at the Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Government Hospital here.

The bodies of those killed are to be taken to the Mana police camp on the outskirts of the capital where senior officials will pay their tributes before sending them onwards to their hometowns and villages.

Police sources admitted that repeated deadly attacks by Maoist guerrillas had sparked panic among sections of security forces, particularly those deployed in the rebel bastions of Bastar region.

“The entire police force, including the paramilitary forces, is highly terrorised. The demoralised men need urgent motivation,” a police officer in Bastar told IANS.

The latest attack by Maoists claimed the lives of 24 CRPF personnel, including an assistant commandant, besides two members of the Chhattisgarh Police.

The guerrillas attacked a 70-strong force in Narayanpur district while they were returning from a road opening assignment in a thickly-forested terrain, some 400 km from Raipur.

The Maoist attackers, believed to be in several dozens, also walked away with AK-47s of the security personnel killed.