Two Teens, Naxal Supporters, Led Us to Ground Zero

(Siddharth Ranjan Das is NDTV Correspondent based in Bhopal)

It took the Chhattisgarh government nearly 24 hours to recover the bodies of seven jawans who were killed by Naxals on Saturday in a tiny village in the Sukma district.

The government said the remoteness of the area made it tough to access and that it wanted to ensure that others would not be vulnerable to attacks as soldiers and officers arrived to collect the martyrs.

On Monday, we set out to visit the Ground Zero. We started for Sukma from the nearest town of Jagdalpur early in the morning, after overcoming the first challenge of hiring a taxi willing to take us to a known Naxal-infested area. The route was quite scenic with hills and trees, but armed security jawans posted all along the way constantly reminded us that we were in the Red Terror Zone.

After almost four hours of driving through roads that are in various states of repair, we reached Polampalli village. There was no road beyond it to Pedmel village, where the jawans were martyred. A teenager agreed to take us there on his motorbike. We carefully manouvered through river beds, forest land, farms and reached Pedmel after crossing two villages and covering 10 km of an absolute torture track. The atmosphere was so calm and serene that it was hard to belive something so terrible happened here just a few days ago.

At Pedmel, our next challenge awaited us, which was to reach the exact spot of the encounter, with chances of us getting lost in the woods while unsupervised were very high. Two teens came to our rescue and agreed to lead the way.

The teenagers on their bicycle escorted us to the spot. And they showed us the bullet marks on trees, the blood stains of martyrs and even bullet shells. We were intrigued by their knowledge and precision - it was as if they were there when it happened. They told us that 50 jawans from the south were entering the area when 200 Naxals surrounded them from three  sides and open fired. They said the gun battle continued for almost four hours. These teenagers said they are Naxal supporters and were eyewitnesses to the encounter.

On our way back, we spotted 6-8 Naxals with INSAS rifles who were guarding comrades gathered in a meeting nearby. My heart skipped a beat but we were allowed to pass through without being stopped or questioned.

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