Dreaded Maoist leader Hidma, the commander of the second battalion of the People's Liberation Gureilla Army (PLGA ), the armed wing of the CPI(Maoist),is being suspected to be behind Saturday's attack at Sukma district of Chattisgarh in which 12 CRPF personnel were martyred.
Hidma was allegedly behind the 2013 Jeeram Valley attack in Bastar district of Chattisgarh in which 31 people including some senior state Congress leaders were killed. He was also behind the Chintalnar ambush in 2010 in which 76 CRPF troopers were killed.
"As of now, Hidma is being suspected to be behind the attack as per our intelligence inputs," a top intelligence official in the CRPF based in Chattisgarh told THE WEEK.
The potent threat by the banned CPI(Maoist) became alive once again after a platoon of 60 armed members of the PLGA unleashed violence—the worst in the recent past—killing 12 CRPF personnel in an encounter that took place in the forest area of Bankupura, south east of Bheji towards Kottacheru in Sukma district on Satueday morning .
The attack took place notwithstanding multiple intelligence inputs that the PLGA was active and planning strikes ahead of the monsoon season .
The period after the winter season and before the monsoon is the time when the Maoists are the most active, targeting security forces by laying ambushes and carrying out IED attacks, taking benefit of the conducive weather and knowledge of the terrain, said Dinakaran, DIG in CRPF in Sukma told THE WEEK.
During the monsoons , they again lie low as movements in the dense forests and uneasy terrains become difficult.
The anti-naxal forces, consisting of the state and central forces, had intelligence inputs warning about Saturday's strike. The armed Maoists struck terror when a company of 112 CRPF personnel was going for a road opening exercise (ROP).
"They fired at the central force party which fired back. However, as the encounter was going on with the Maoists carrying heavy weaponry, an IED blast was set off by the Maoists. Two three Maoists were also killed in the encounter, but as the naxals usually do, they took away their bodies," Dinakaran said .
During the IED blast ,the CRPF personnel suffered the maximum injuries with as many as eleven losing their lives. One officer breathed his last while he was being evacuated in a chopper.
The Maoists snatched ten weapons and two wireless sets from the security forces.
Though the encounter is over, the search operations are going on and all escape routes of the naxals are being sealed in the state. Additional forces are deployed on the group even as Union home minister Rajnath Singh and the CRPF top brass have landed in Raipur where they laid wreaths to the martyrs and are monitoring the anti-naxal operations.
