NEW DELHI, June 21: Three personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed in an ambush set up by suspected Left Wing Extremists at Bhainsadani in Odisha’s Nuapada district on Tuesday.
The deceased have been identified as Shishupal Singh, an assistant sub-inspector who belonged Lalgari village in Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh; Shivlal, also ASI, who hailed from Paiga village of Mahendragarh district in Haryana, and Dharmendra Kumar Singh, a constable from Saraya village of Bihar’s Rohtas district.
A few CRPF personnel are reported to have suffered critical injuries. With this ambush, the left wing extremists have made their presence felt after a gap of a few years.
The three were part of a road opening party. About 1.5 km of Patadhara, a remote forested region of Nuapada district and barely a few kilometres from Chhattisgarh, members of the CPI (Maoist) resorted to indiscriminate firing. According to a CRPF official, about 10 to 12 rounds were fired. Officials are waiting for details, as the area does not have mobile connectivity. It has not been ascertained if CRPF personnel returned fire.
Areas such as Bhainsadani, Dharambandha, Batibahal and Jamgaon have CRPF deployment. These places are critical to keeping CPI (Maoist) cadres at bay. The left wing extremists often slip into Sunabeda Sanctuary area of Nuapada after perpetrating violence in Chhattisgarh. Besides, Sunabeda is a contiguous forest patch which connected Bargarh and Balangir district of Odisha.
(Manas Dasgupta)