NEW DELHI: As many as 22 Indian police and paramilitary forces personnel were killed and 35 others sustained severe injuries in a clash with Maoist rebels in a central Indian state, government officials said on Sunday.
As per the government officials, security personnel belonging to the Central Reserve Police Force’s elite CoBRA unit, the Special Task Force and the District Reserve Guard were attacked in the tribal-dominated Chhattisgarh state during an anti-insurgency operation on Saturday.
Chhattisgarh police’s Additional Director General Ashok Juneja confirmed that 22 security personnel were killed in an almost a three-hour battle in the Maoist rebel stronghold.
He said, “The search operation is still ongoing in the area and the exact figure will be known late after it concluded.”
The injured soldiers were admitted to two government-run hospitals in Bijapur and Chhattisgarh’s capital city Raipur.
Ashok Juneja further said more than a dozen others remained missing, adding that an unidentified number of Maoists were also killed in the battle. The police officials said the rebels also plundered ammunition, weapons, uniforms and shoes from the security forces who were killed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the sacrifices of the brave martyrs will never be forgotten, while Home Minister Amit Shah wrote on Twitter that India would “continue our fight against these enemies of peace & progress”.
My thoughts are with the families of those martyred while fighting Maoists in Chhattisgarh. The sacrifices of the brave martyrs will never be forgotten. May the injured recover at the earliest.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 3, 2021
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel wrote on Facebook on Sunday that Shah had assured him of “all the necessary help” from the national government against the militants.
Since 2017, the toll was the worst for Indian security forces battling the far-left guerillas, when 25 police commandos were killed in an attack by rebels.
In March last year, 17 police from a commando patrol were killed in an attack by 400 armed rebels in Chhattisgarh. In 2019, 16 commandos were also killed in the western state of Maharashtra in the lead-up to India’s election.
