On April 3, Maoists killed 22 security personnel near Tekulgudem village of South Bastar. The slain personnel were part of the joint parties of the CRPF’s Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), the Special Task Force (STF) and the District Reserve Guards (DRG) of Chhattisgarh Police that had left for an intelligence-based operation a day before from Tarrem, the farthest security camp in Bijapur district, and their target area was about 12 km away in neighbouring Sukma district. When the forces occupied a dominating hill feature after searching the area, the Maoists surrounded them and started firing with automatic weapons and grenades. The jawans retaliated immediately, but suffered casualties while breaking out of the ambush. A few of the wounded were rescued by helicopters the same day, and the operation was completed the next morning when the bodies were retrieved. A jawan is missing and suspected to be in Maoist captivity. Though the CPI(Maoist) press release of April 6 says they lost four of their cadre, including two from the People’s Liberation...
