Those responsible for the tragedy of April 3 will find countless reasons for the loss of personnel that the Central Reserve Paramilitary Fo...
Those responsible for the tragedy of April 3 will find countless reasons for the loss of personnel that the Central Reserve Paramilitary Force and the Chhattisgarh police suffered at the hands of the Maoists. But the plain fact is that sole responsibility for the monumental failure lies on the shoulders of the top leadership of the CRPF.
Twenty-two soldiers were killed in a Maoist ambush on the border of Bijapur and Sukma districts in southern Chhattisgarh on Saturday. This includes 14 Chhattisgarh policemen and seven jawans of the CRPF, including six members of its elite CoBRA unit, specially trained to take on Maoist guerillas. One CRPF jawan is still missing, held captive by the Maoists.
There are eerie similarities between this ambush and another one that took place exactly 11 years ago on April 6, 2010, near Tadmetla village of Sukma in which CRPF lost 76 soldiers within three hours. Then, as in now, a large body of troops were launched into an operation without intelligence, knowledge of terrain or adequate preparation. They became sitting ducks to the Maoists who had been tracking their movement.
Since 2010, there have been at least five major attacks on the CRPF by the Maoists in the Bastar region,...
