Chhattisgarh CM discusses anti-Naxal strategies

A day after 27 Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed in a Naxal ambush in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district, Chief Minister Raman Singh called an emergency meeting to discuss anti-Naxal strategies on Wednesday.

The meeting, apart from reviewing Tuesday's deadly attack, discussed strategies to modernise police forces and equip them with better tools to fight the outlaws, state officials said.

The meeting, which lasted for an hour and a half, was attended by the Union home ministry and senior state officials including State Home Minister Nanki Ram Kanwar, Chief Secretary P J Ummain, state Director General of Police Vishwaranjan, CRPF chief Vikram Shrivastav, and senior Union Home Ministry official B M Nair.

Additional Director General of Police Ramnivas said the Chhattisgarh police and paramilitary forces were jointly tackling the Naxal menace in the State.

He said that around 15 Naxalites were possibly killed when security personnel retaliated during the attack, as blood marks and signs of bodies being dragged were seen on the massacre site.

A large number of heavily armed Maoists, perched on a hilltop, had opened fire with automatic weapons on a 63-member security contingent, which was returning on foot from road opening duty on Tuesday, killing 26 CRPF personnel and injuring eight others.