An army personnel and a jawan of Chhattisgarh armed forces lost their lives while fighting the Maoist in two separate incidents that occurred within the last 48 hours in the insurgency-hit Chhattisgarh.
As per the reports, an army jawan, who was currently posted in the North East, had come to his native village Bade Tava of Kanker to meet his expecting wife. It has been learnt that the jawan was buying some daily essentials when the Maoist hit squad shot him in front of his brother and other villagers in the local market on February 25.
The deceased has been identified as Moti Ram Achala, a jawan of the Army Service Corps. It has been also reported that this is a first-of-a-kind incident, where the Ultras have attacked and killed army personnel in the region.
According to reports, a number of times, he had visited his home in the past and had never been threatened by the Maoists before.
Speaking on the development Brig. B K Pawar (retd) asserted that the case could be related to mistaken identity. There are no other incidents in which the Maoist have deliberately targeted an army jawan; it may be possible that the Maoist could have assumed that the jawan is associated with CRPF or some other forces operating against the Maoist in the state.
CAF personnel lost his lives in IED explosion
In another incident, a jawan of Chhattisgarh armed forces lost his lives during a combing operation near Orchha of Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh on February 26.
According to the information received, the CAF unit was out on an area domination exercise near Orchha of Narayanpur in the wee hours of Sunday when one of the jawans stepped on an IED planted by the Ultras in Batum village, subsequently triggering a blast on the location.
It has been reported that the jawan, identified as head constable Sanjay Lekara, died immediately after the blast. Later, his body was taken to the nearby hospital. Sanjay was a resident of Bamhanpura village of Jashpur and was posted in the 16th battalion of CAF.
It is to be noted that as many as 7 security personnel, including an army jawan, have so far been killed by the Maoist in the last one week.
Earlier, two unarmed personnel of the district police force and CAF were killed by the armed cadres of the proscribed CPI Maoist near the Maharashtra border in Rajnandgaon on Monday, February 20, while three personnel of district reserved guards (DRG) were also killed in a fierce gunfight broke near the forests of Painta Chi between Kunder and Jagargunda of Sukma on February 25.
It was reported that the incident occurred when a road operating party of the DRG was combing the area near the newly established forward operating base in Kunder, where the armed cadres of battalion no 1 of outlawed CPI Maoist opened indiscriminate fire upon them; a total of six ultras were also neutralized in the encounter.
