Naxals butcher 74 in worst blow to Indian security forces
The deadliest ever Maoist attack on security forces left 73 CRPF personnel and a local policeman dead in the thick forests of Dantewada on Tuesday, mowed down brutally, barely able to offer a fight in a dawn ambush along a road near the remote village of Chintalnar-Tarmetla. The deadly message from the Maoists comes as a battlecry, making it amply evident that all offers of truce or talks are essentially red herrings and they see their showdown with the state as a fight to the finish. It was a ferocious response to the Centre's bid to reclaim areas that Maoists have long held unchallenged and consider their domain.
Home minister P Chidambaram admitted that "something must have gone drastically wrong...They seem to have walked into a trap". Saying, "We should not have lost so many lives", home secretary G K Pillai promised that the massacre would not go unpunished. He said the search operations had been carried out on the basis of certain specific intelligence inputs.
The attacks were understood to have been carried out by several hundred Maoists, estimates ranging from 200-300 to 800-1,000. The latest chapter in the world's largest Left-wing insurgency unfolded early on Tuesday, between 6am and 7am, when 81 security personnel, including a local constable, were returning to their base in Chintalnar after an operation that spanned two nights and three days. It was a search-and-engage operation, aimed at challenging Maoists and establishing civilian control over red zones.
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