By IANS,
Raipur : Three Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers were killed and nine others injured in a Maoist attack early Thursday morning in Chhattisgarh, police said.
The incident took place in the thickly forested Mahakal area of Kanker district, about 350 km from capital Raipur, in the state’s restive Bastar region.
“It was a Maoist ambush. The insurgents first triggered blasts and then opened indiscriminate fire on a joint patrolling team of the CRPF and the district force,” Pawan Deo, deputy inspector general of police, told IANS.
He said that the troopers belonged to the 111 CRPF battalion. The seven seriously injured men have been airlifted to Raipur while two were admitted to a hospital in Kanker.
Police officials said that a re-inforcement team of 100 policemen has reached the attack site within two hours of the incident even as the joint team was probably still engaged in a gunbattle with the guerrillas.
Chhattisgarh is one of the worst hit due to Maoist insurgency with nearly 1,250 people killed in attacks since 2004.