Chhattisgarh polls: Bijapur gunfight may have foiled Maoist poll-day ambush plot

RAIPUR: Security forces foiled a major Maoist ambush, planned for polling day, by intercepting a heavily armed group of insurgents in Bijapur and engaging them in a gunfight before they could put their plan in place, police said on Wednesday.
At least three Maoists were killed, say police sources. A purported drone video surfaced after the gunbattle, showing hundreds of armed Maoists, carrying back the bodies of their slain cadres.
Officially, police officers aren’t disclosing much about the operation but going by the massing of so many Maoists, it appears that the insurgents had planned something big.The locals of Bijapur seem to have had an inkling as it would have been impossible for the Maoists to move so many armed cadres without being noticed.
On Tuesday, before the first round of voting began, many villages in the interiors of Bijapur district emptied out. People reportedly fled their homes. At many places, villagers were scared of being inked with the voter’s mark, fearing reprisals. Bijapur reported the lowest polling, only 46%, even lower than the 49% in 2018.
The encounter broke out in Padeda, a thickly forested region around 20km from Bijapur district headquarters.
Bijapur SP Anjaneya Vaishnav told reporters on Wednesday that around 2pm on November 7, an encounter broke out between CRPF personnel of the 85th battalion and Maoists just south of Paddeda, when the forces were out on an area domination operation.
Going by the sheer number of Maoists at one spot and the volume of fire, the forces realized that it was an ambush. But it appeared that the security personnel had surprised the insurgents by reaching the spot before the insurgents could draw up a cordon, and then fighting back fiercely.
The forces dominated the Maoists during the half-hour encounter, an official said, adding that 2-3 dead Maoists were seen being dragged behind the trees. The Maoists couldn’t withstand the counterattack and fled, say police.
Later, drone footage showed the Maoists carrying injured or dead cadres on makeshift stretchers. The number of casualties among Maoists could be much more, said SP Vaishnav. The video shows uniformed and armed Naxals coming out of hiding and marching towards the forests.
The SP added that the Maoist menace has often been a challenge during elections, but barring a few incidents of IED blasts and encounters, polling was smooth on Tuesday. Now, polling parties are returning to the base and many have been airlifted back safely from the remote regions of Bijapur, he said.
Brief gunfights took place between Maoists and security personnel near Gudadi village in Narayanpur district, around 120km from Paddeda, and near Mangnar village in Dantewada district but no casualty was reported among security personnel.