Mumbai: 12 CRPF jawans were killed and 28 injured in a Naxal attack in Maharashtra. The landmine blast took place in the Gadchiroli district after the bus carrying the jawans drove over the landmine.
A powerful landmine ripped through the vehicle on Tuesday morning.
The battalion was on its way from Karvafa to Gatta tasked with road opening and area domination when the attack took place. Gadchiroli, the hotbed of Naxal activity has repeatedly been targetted in the recent past.
In August 2011, three policemen, including two personnel of the Cobra battalion were killed in an encounter with the Naxals and several jawans were injured.
Earlier in October 2009, 200 armed Naxals, dressed in military fatigues, attacked a police patrol in Gadchiroli in the ensuing hours long gunbattle 17 policemen were massacred.
The anti-Naxal force along with local police had gone to the villages to take stock of election-related arrangements. While returning from they were ambushed by the Naxals.
It was only in December last on a tour of Gadchiroli that Home Minister P Chidambaram has expressed his disappointment with the lack of progress in combating left wing extremism when it has been on a decline elsewhere.
While several developmental initiatives have been abounded in the last 12 months but with little political mobilisation in the Naxal heartland, the Gadchiroli, the poorest district in Maharsahtra remains in the grip if the vicious cycle of violence and lack of development.
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