India: Naxalites gun down 17 cops in Maharashtra

[Naveed Yaseen]

* IAF to deploy commando units to defend its helicopters, men in Naxal-infested areas

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: Seventeen policemen were killed and two others injured on Thursday in a Maoist rebel attack in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.

Nearly 100 Maoists, commonly known as Naxals, ambushed 40 policemen at Laheri police station in Gadchiroli district, as the security personnel were returning from a visit to nearby villages to take stock of election-related arrangements. The nearly two-hour gunfight left 17 members of Maharashtra’s C-60 anti-Naxal force dead, according to Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police Jai Kumar. The rebels also ambushed the reinforcements sent after reports of the attack. The attack came after India’s Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday warned Maoists to abandon violence or face a major assault by security forces after the guerrillas beheaded a police officer in the Ranchi district earlier this week.

The Gadchiroli attack took place a few hours before the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, discussed the growing Naxal threat in various parts of the country and measures required to counter it. The rebels have almost taken over Indian forests, spread over 40,000 square kilometres in 20 states, forming a ‘Red Corridor’ right from the Nepal border to the southern-most state of Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Thursday said it would deploy commando units to defend its helicopters and men in Naxal-infested areas, but made it clear that they would not carry out any ‘Rambo-style’ operation against the Maoists. “It is not a free-for-all [fight] like ‘Rambo’ that we will go and fight in the countryside. The helicopters operating for casualty evacuation will be mounted with guns and the Garud [Commando] Force will man them,” Naik said on the sidelines of the 77th Air Force Day parade.

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