An assistant platoon commander of Chhattisgarh Special Task Force (STF) was killed and a STF jawan was injured in a Maoist ambush in notorious Darbha valley of Bastar region of Chhattisgarh early on Saturday.
“STF assistant platoon commandant Krishna Pal Singh was killed after sustaining bullet injury in his head. STF jawan Santosh Yadav was also injured in the encounter. He has been shifted Raipur for treatment,”
Bastar range Inspector General of Police, Mr. S.R.P. Kalluri told reporters.
Darbha valley has witnessed three major Maoist attacks in last three years in which more than 50 security personnel and senior Congress politicians were killed.
According to some sources, the Maoists had laid a five kilometres long ambush for the security forces in the wee hours on Saturday.
Maoist blocked the National Highway in Darbha valley by felling trees and digging road at around 2 am.
A team of STF left for the spot to clear the road at around 3 am.
“When we reached the spot, the Maoists were ready with the ambush and opened fire on us,” an STF jawan who was a part of the team, told a local reporter.
“We were covering both sides of the road and avoided walking on the road, so they could not attack us directly,” said the jawan.
On encountering strong retaliation from the STF team, the rebels escaped taking advantage of thick forest.
Three security camps were opened in Darbha valley following Maoist attack on the Congress party convoy in May 2013.
In March 2014, the Maoists had killed 14 CRPF jawans hardly a few kilometres from the spot of Saturday’s incident and a month later, the ultras had blown up an ambulance carrying CRPF men on poll duty killing five of them and the driver of the ambulance in the same area.
Traffic was disrupted due to damage to the NH 30 as the Maoists dug the road at more than seven locations.
