Raipur, May 11 (IANS) Twelve policemen and a civilian were killed and six others injured after 150 heavily armed Maoist guerrillas ambushed a 41-member police force in Chhattisgarh, officials said Monday.
The attack on the District Force (DF) search convoy in Dhamtari district's hillside Risgaon village took place late Sunday.
'The heavily armed rebels first triggered multiple blasts and then opened indiscriminate fire from hilltops on jawans. Ten constables, one hawaldar, one special police officer (SPO) and a civilian, who was the driver of one of the vehicles, were killed,' Girdhari Nayak, additional director general of police, told IANS.
The incident took place 130 km from here.
'It's the first attack of insurgents in Dhamtari district. The jawans belonging to Kanker DF were travelling in three vehicles,' said Pawan Deo, deputy inspector general (Maoist operations) at the police headquarters.
A helicopter sent by the state government Monday morning brought back three seriously injured policemen who have been admitted to the Ramkrishna Care Hospital here.
The search squad was sent to the area after intelligence inputs suggested that dozens of Maoists were to meet there. The information proved to be a trap.
Rebels have stepped up attacks on police and civilians over the last week. On May 6, Maoists killed 11 people, including seven security personnel, in Bastar region. A day later, a police station in-charge was stabbed to death in full public view in the same region.
On May 5, a senior leader of the state's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Rajnandgaon district was shot dead. Police say over 1,500 people have been killed in the state in Maoist violence since Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in November 2000.
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