Mumbai: Seven policemen were killed and two others were left grievously injured after their moving vehicle was blown up in a landmine blast triggered by Maoist rebels in the insurgency-hit Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra on Sunday morning.
Police sources believe the attack was a retaliation to the arrest of Naxal ideologue S.N. Saibaba, a Delhi University professor who was arrested in the national capital on Friday. Combing operations were intensified in the area following the attack.
Gadchiroli police PRO Dharmendra Joshi said the police jeep with anti-Naxal C-60 commandos reached Mauja Murmuri forests of Charmoshi taluka in Gadchiroli district around 10 am when rebels triggered the landmine dug into the ground after the vehicle passed over it. The explosion was strong enough to cause the jeep to turn turtle and land on its roof after being thrown a few feet in the air.
Policemen from nearby Ghot police station rushed to the spot with armed commandos, and the injured were airlifted to a hospital in Nagpur.
The deceased, all police jawans, were identified as Deepak Ratan Vighave from Ahmednagar, Sunil Madavi from Chandrapur, Rohan Dambare from Charmoshi in Gadchiroli, Subhash Kumre from Etapalli in Gadchiroli, Tirupati Allam from Sirencha in Gadchiroli, Lakhsman Munde from Parbhani and Duryodhan Nagtode from Desaiganj in Gadchiroli.
The injured, Pankaj Sidam and Hemant Bansod, both from Gadchiroli, are critical. “One of them was only a month away from getting married and the other was celebrating his wedding anniversary,” said a police source.
“The arrest of Saibaba severely hurt the organisational network of Naxals in logistics and recruitment. This attack was therefore a backlash after the arrest,” said an officer involved in the anti-Naxal operations there.
