Injured CRPF men want to avenge colleagues' deaths

He survived Tuesday's Naxal ambush on the Central Reserve Police Force in Chhattisgarh and got injured but has not lost his nerve and is raring to return to the jungles to avenge the death of his fellow security men.

As questions were raised whether there was any violation of the standard operating procedures by the CRPF after the third major Naxal attack in as many months in Chhattisgarh, Parmanand, one of the injured jawans, gave an eyewitness account on Wednesday of the ambush on a 63-member security contingent.

Twenty-seven personnel were killed and eight injured in the attack in a remote area in Narayanpur district, about 300 km from Raipur, when jawans of the 39th battalion were returning from road opening duty came under indiscriminate fire from waiting rebels perched on a hill-top in Dhaudai jungles.

About 100 to 200 heavily armed Maoists were reported to have been involved.

Several CRPF men were injured in the surprise attack but they soon mustered courage and hit back at the heavily-armed Maoists, killing some of them, Parmanand told PTI in a city hospital where he is recuperating from leg injury.

The CRPF jawan said he himself saw three Naxals falling to the ground after being hit by bullets fired by the injured security men.

The Naxals numbered around 200, were in battle fatigue and armed to the teeth, he said. "The Maoists seemed well prepared, but the CRPF men did not lose their morale and retaliated with full force."

Parmanand said he tried to evacuate some of his wounded colleagues and take the weapons of the martyred personnel, but he himself got injured after being hit by four bullets.

As additional personnel arrived at the spot, the Naxals started retreating but kept on firing, he said.

Parmanand said though he has been injured he has not lost his spirit and was ready to avenge the killing of his fellow security men. He said several of his colleagues also felt the same way.