Chhattisgarh witnessed one of the deadliest Naxal attacks ever since the red insurgency began over a decade ago. A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) party was ambushed on Monday and 25 jawans were killed, raising questions on the capacity of security forces to thwart the Maoist terror. CNN-News 18's Shreya Dhoundiyal spoke to DM Awasthi, Director-General (Anti-Naxal Operations) Chhattisgarh Police, who insisted that his force and CRPF would "strike back" for Monday’s horror.
What’s the sequence of events in the Sukma attack? There are many conflicting reports…
An ROP (Road Opening Party) had set out for road work. After six hours, they sat down for lunch and half of the party was giving cover to the others. The party was ambushed during this time. Maybe the Naxals were watching their movements.
Was there a failure of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)?
No, it would not be right to say there was an SOP failure. You can’t have SOPs for routine work like road construction. It happens every day. Everything was out in the open. This work has to be done in the morning. There can be no “element of surprise" here.
What can you tell us about the fightback by the CRPF jawans?
They fought back and saved civilian lives. There were 40 civilians employed to work on the road, they were saved. Over 70 CRPF Jawans also survived the ordeal.
What is going wrong? And why is this road so important that we are risking lives for it?
This road is most important for the development of the region. Naxals have been blocking the construction of this road for the last 15 years. It was attacked because it was close to construction. Naxals don’t want this road to be built because the connecting road runs right through their core area.
There is talk of bringing in the Army and even setting up a cantonment in Bastar. Do you think the Army is required?
All security forces work with us (state police). We are capable of fighting Naxals. We had 263 operations last year and neutralised 167 Maoists. We will take the challenge and hit them back. We are capable but the government will take a decision on the Army.
What does an attack like this do to the morale of the CRPF? Some jawans are saying they are “sitting ducks" and are “cannon fodder" for Maoists…
When a force is living in a conflict area and 25 jawans are killed in an attack like this, there will be questions (raised) on the morale but all forces are unitedly going to fight back. This is a temporary phase.
Is there a problem with the training given to the forces deployed?
No, there is no question of a training or leadership challenge. We can’t generalise an entire security force like this.
On a technical note, IEDs were not used in this attack. Was there an intention to loot weapons?
Yes, absolutely. Weapons would be destroyed if they had used IEDs. The agenda was to loot weapons and unless they inflict casualties, there is no way they can loot weapons.
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