A station house officer (SHO) and an assistant constable were killed while six security personnel and two civilians sustained bullet injuries when Maoists opened fire at a joint patrolling team in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district on Monday.
"...a team of security forces led by Kanker district police left on the search operation. As per the information reaching the state capital, two jawans were killed and around 5-6 were injured in an encounter," additional director general of police (anti-Maoist operation) RK Vij told Hindustan Times.
Vij explained that the incident occurred when the security personnel were patrolling on motorcycles, in Bande region, located around 250 kms away from the state capital Raipur.
While the SHO Avinash Sharma and district constable died on the spot, six security personnel including two Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and one BSF assistant commandant sustained injuries. The injured were admitted to a local hospital, according to PTI.
"A group of armed Maoists opened fire on a joint team of security personnel while they were patrolling Paralkot village (PV) number 101 under Bande police station limits," IG (intelligence wing), Deepanshu Kabra told PTI.
A team of district force and BSF was patrolling in Bande region after it received inputs that Maoists had gathered at a forested patch in that area. Meanwhile, the Chhattisgarh police are investigating why the forces were patrolling on motorcycles in the Maoist-affected area.
"We are trying to find out whether it was a booby trap," Vij said.
A similar attack by the guerrillas in 2014 led to the death of 61 security personnel in Bastar zone. The insurgents also looted 47 arms and ammunition from the forces.
In one of the worst attacks, over 300 Maoists trapped the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and killed 75 of them by setting off explosives and firing from hilltops from around the dense forest of Chintalnar village in Dantewada district in April 2010.
