By IANS,
Raipur : A day after nine policemen and a civilian were killed in a Maoist attack, reports have come in of more such possible deadly attacks in forest areas of Chhattisgarh, India’s worst insurgency-affected state, official sources said Saturday.
“We fear more attacks in interiors, mainly at police bases and relief camps housing local tribal civilians,” a senior officer at police headquarters, quoting intelligence inputs, told IANS.
“The latest intelligence reports say that Maoists are itching to carry out deadly attacks in jungle pockets where they have terror infrastructure for years and the areas are heavily mined,” he said.
Senior police officers estimate that some 10,000 cadres of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) have access to AK-47s, mortars and rocket launchers, and are active in the state’s southern Bastar region.
A little over 100 heavily-armed Maoists killed nine policemen and a civilian Friday evening when they ambushed a police contingent in Bijapur district in Bastar, which is made up of five districts and is spread out in roughly 40,000 sq km.
The attack, which came after a brief lull in Maoist violence in the state, forced Chief Minister Raman Singh to hold an emergency meeting Friday night with top officials as police reinforcements were finding it hard to reach the attack site where some three injured cops were lying in a pool of blood.