Union Home Minister Amit Shah chairing a review meeting with senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Intelligence Bureau and Central Armed Police Forces in New Delhi today
By Santushti Raina
Raipur/New Delhi: Following one of the deadliest encounters with the Naxals near Jonaguda village under Jagargunda police station in Sukma district of Chattisgarh on April 3, in which several security personnels were martyred, 32 were injured and at least one commando was missing, Union Home Minister Amit Shah today reiterated that the fight against Naxalites will continue “with strength, perseverance and intensity and we will take it to the end”. He said many naxals were also killed in the encounter.
While bodies of 22 personnel could be retrieved till now, Shah though remained non-committal on the casualty figure as the search operation was still going on till late Sunday night.
Shah, who rushed to the national capital today evening from Assam where he was campaigning for state Assembly elections, as the toll figures rose. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel too was campaigning in Assam and he too rushed to state capital Raipur today.
Less than a couple of weeks ago, on March 23, too, the naxals had dealt a mighty blow to security forces by blowing up a bus carrying security personnel in an Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) attack between Kademeta and Kanhargaon villages in the Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh, in which five District Reserve Guard (DRG) personnels were killed and 14 others were injured.
Shah took stock of the situation and chaired a review meeting with senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Intelligence Bureau and Central Armed Police Forces today. While paying tributes to the police personnel martyred in the encounter with Naxalites Shah sought to assure “the martyrs’ families and the country that the sacrifices the police personnel have made for the country will not go in vain”.
It may be mentioned that Sukma falls in the Naxal belt and has seen many such ambushes from the Maoists in the past. Chhattisgarh police stated the encounter team was sent to Tarrem to corner People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) chief Hidma who was said to be in the area. The PLGA Battalion 1 is one of the dreaded unit of the Maoists active in southern Chhattisgarh. Hidma was also reportedly behind the deadly attack in which 76 CRPF jawans were killed at Tadmetla in Dantewada district in 2010. His involvement was also suspected in the ambush in which 12 CRPF jawans were killed in March 2017 when they had gone to secure a road-construction party near Bhejji in Sukma.
Reports suggest that this time too, the Naxals were not happy with the road construction activity near Silger-Jagargunda.
