Nagpur, May 1:
At least 15 jawans of Quick Response Team (QRT) of the Kurkheda police station in north Gadchiroli were on Wednesday killed in a blast triggered by Maoistsat Lendhri pool, located close to Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border. Bus driver of a private vehicle carrying the jawans also lost his life in the attack, which comes as a deadly blow to the state government on the occasion of ‘Maharashtra Day’. The blast comes days after the seven-day long ‘Martyr Week’ – in the memory of their 40 lost cadres in police encounter at Kasnasur – concluded. The Maoists had vowed to avenge the killing of their cadres at Kasansur on April 22, 23 last year. Condemning the attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the sacrifice of the jawans won’t be forgotten. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis strongly condemned the attack and said, “We will fight this menace with even more and stronger efforts.” Earlier in the day, the Maoists had set on fire at least 27 vehicles of a road construction company along with their camp site offices at Dadapur village near Purada in Maharashtra’s Gondia district. The latest violence are perpetrated by the Moaists of the banned outfit of North Gadchiroli division of CPM. The formations of company number four along with local dalams like Kurkheda-Korchi-Khobramenda (KKK), Tippagarh and others are likely to be involved. Today’s Maoist attack is the biggest in Gadchiroli since 2009 when 51 security personnel were killed in separate incidents at Gyarapatti, Laheri and Hattigota. Confirming the developments, Ankush Shinde, DIG, Naxal range, said that the Maoists had targeted the private vehicle in which the QRT jawans were travelling from Kurkheda to Purada. “Police parties had hired the private vehicle,” he said. It has been learnt that the jawans had hired the private vehicle assuming the possibilities of Maoists having planted IEDs along the roads and also in the forest to target the security forces. “The Maoists knew well that the police parties would soon launch operations after the burning of 27 vehicles would come to fore. They had planned their strategies well in advance,” Naxal range DIG said.
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