By IANS
Raipur : A police team entered a hamlet in the middle of a dense forest in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district early Saturday to recover the bodies of 15 policemen killed by Maoist rebels a day earlier.
Around 200 armed Maoists ambushed a police party in the forest. The rebels opened fire and triggered landmine blasts that left at least 15 cops dead.
The attack took place in a dense forest some 560 km south of state capital Raipur, close to the Andhra Pradesh border.
A 120-member police team set out to search for the bodies, assisted by a 26-seater helicopter.
Police say at least five policemen received bullet wounds in the attack. “We first got information about the casualties by injured cops who somehow managed to reach a police station.”
The guerrillas included women and were waiting for the police team from Friday morning. The ambushed was carried out at around 4.30 p.m.
“We hope to recover the bodies of the policemen soon,” officials added.
On Oct 29, Maoists had killed five special police officers (SPOs) in the same district in a gun battle.
Chhattisgarh is one of the worst insurgency hit states. Guerrillas armed with rocket launchers, landmines and AK-47s have for years been running a parallel government in a 40,000 sq km area in mineral-rich Bastar region, where Bijapur district is located.