RAIPUR: The villagers came first, and then the Naxalites, dressed in black.
“They were some 300 Naxalites, all wearing black,” a jawan of the Central Reserve Police Force said. The jawan was among those injured in the Naxalite attack that took 25 lives in Chhattisgarh yesterday.
Some of the Maoists carried rocket launchers, the jawan, who did not wish to be named, said.
Another injured jawan, Sher Mohammad Khan, said the Naxalites also carried AK-47s, SLRs and other automatic weapons.
The two men, who were in a 99-strong CRPF team carrying out a sanitisation exercise for an under-construction road in Chhattisgarh, are now being treated in a hospital in Raipur.
“They first sent the villagers to check our location. The villagers weren’t carrying arms, (so) how could we fire at them,” the unnamed CRPF man asked.
“We retaliated. We also killed many Naxals,” he added. (AGENCIES)