New Delhi: The anti-Maoist operation in Chhattisgarh was “poorly designed and incompetently executed”, stated Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, a day after a senior official denied “intelligence failure” after 22 safety personnel had been killed in an ambush within the state’s Bastar area.
“If there was no intelligence failure then a 1:1 loss of life ratio means it was a poorly designed and incompetently executed operation,” the Congress chief tweeted tagging a information clipping of CRPF DG Kuldiep Singh’s “no operational and intelligence failure” comment.
“Our Jawans will not be cannon fodder to be martyred at will,” he added.
Mr Singh, who visited Chhattisgarh to watch the scenario following the Maoist assault, had stated that there was completely no intelligence or operational failure within the operation.
“There is no such thing as a level in saying that there was some type of intelligence or operational failure. Had it been some intelligence failure, forces would haven’t gone for the operation. And if there was some operational failure, so many Naxals would haven’t been killed,” Mr Singh had informed information company ANI.
He had, nevertheless, earlier acknowledged that his personnel had been “shocked and ambushed”.
As much as 2,000 personnel from six camps had been mobilised after the safety forces acquired inputs concerning the presence of two of prime Maoists leaders — Madvi Hidma, the Folks’s Liberation Guerrilla Military’s (PLGA) battalion number one commander, and Sujatha, an affiliate — within the Jagargunda-Jonaguda-Tarrem belt. This included these from the CRPF’s specialised jungle warfare unit CoBRA, a unit of its Bastariya Battalion, and the District Reserve Guard.
As soon as one of many groups reached the spot the place the Left-wing terrorist commanders had been to be discovered in line with the intel, some 400 Maoists encircled the safety personnel from three sides. A heavy gunbattle ensued within the jungle, and whereas the forces fought again with all their would possibly, they suffered enormous losses as a result of ultras’ tactical benefit, officers stated.
As much as 22 personnel had been killed within the line of obligation and over 30 sustained accidents, officers stated. The Maoists additionally looted some two dozen assault weapons from the forces. The safety personnel took cowl behind giant bushes and saved firing until they ran out of ammunition, officers stated.
