After Bastar encounter, troopers carry bodies of eight Naxals through rough terrain for 15 hours

RAIPUR: The task doesn’t get over for the ground troopers after a successful encounter
with the outlawed CPI (Maoist) in the virtual war zone of Bastar. They had to return safely to their base camps and headquarter carrying the bodies and the arms recovered from the remote hostile area.

Eight naxalites including four women fighters were killed in fierce gun-battle with a joint team of Special Task Force (STF) and District Reserve Guards (DRG) along the border areas of two strife-torn
districts of Dantewada and Bijapur on Thursday.

It took over 15 hours for the security forces making their way across the difficult forested terrain and the rivulets to bring out the bodies safely to the district headquarter of Dantewada.

The Red brigade as their usual practice carry away the bodies of their dead comrades or injured cadres during the gunfight to preempt the possibility of the bodies being taken away by the forces. As a consequence, there always remain a persistent threat when the jawans bring with them the dead rebels, the senior police officials in Bastar affirmed. So the movement of forces along the passage are simultaneously shielded by another team.

“The bodies have been brought to Dantewada and identified. Taking out the bodies after an encounter in the combat zone is in itself another tough operation that involves a lot of risks while moving inside the
inhospitable terrain. The personnel carry double the load as they walk through very cautiously carrying bodies amid the grave danger. It took over 15 hours for them to reach a relatively safe area”, Bastar inspector general of police Vivekanand Sinha told the Express.

The security forces had to cover long distance of several miles on foot carrying the bodies through the dense jungle, streams, hilly rugged terrain and even the places where the probability of planted Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exists.

“The return after the encounter is always fraught with danger and further takes considerable time for the security forces than what they took while going to the area for operation. Every precaution and preventive measure being closely followed as they also keep getting inputs on their safe movement”, DIG (anti-Maoist operation) P Sunderraj told the Express.

Arms and ammunition were also recovered by the security forces from the spot.

The Bastar police take the assistance of the surrendered Maoists to identify the dead rebels.