New Delhi: Ten policemen and one civilian have been killed in a blast carried out by Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada, according to official sources quoted by PTI and ANI.
The explosives attack took place on a vehicle carrying personnel from the District Reserve Guard (DRG) near Aranpur in the Dantewada district.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel condoled the deaths, and said the state’s fight against Naxals was in the final stages. “Naxals will not be spared and we will end Naxalism,” he added.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has also assured Baghel of all central assistance in the wake of the deaths.
Also killed in the attack was the vehicle’s driver who was taking the policemen for an anti-Maoist operation on Wednesday. The force had received intelligence inputs about Naxalite presence in the Aranpur area.
The protracted conflict between Maiosts or Naxalites and several state governments is today in its sixth decade, and has seen the deaths of hundreds, mostly security personnel and government workers.
The peripheries of the insurgency, however, has shrunk in recent years but still thrives along the “Red Zone” – or coal-rich remote, forested hills in central, eastern and southern India.
The Naxalite cause is for improved land rights and more jobs for poor agricultural labourers and the marginalised.
Also read: ‘Hello Bastar’: Rahul Pandita’s new book is an investigative account of the Maoist movement