Raipur:
Confronting coffins labelled with the names of their inhabitants, mothers receiving their sons' corpses in small villages, anger and grief is swelling across India over the massacre of 76 jawans on Monday by Naxals in Chhatisgarh. (
Read & watch: 76 security men killed by Naxals in Chhattisgarh)
The Director General of Police (DGP) , Chhattisgarh, talks exclusively to NDTV's Sudhi Ranjan Sen to share what has been discovered about why the jawans found themselves surrounded, and without any hope of escape.
DGP Viswas Ranjan says many of the answers so desperately needed lie with a group of seven injured jawans, now being treated in hospital for serious injuries. Their burn injuries, he says, suggest "Molotov cocktails were used." (
Pics: Bloody Timeline)
Once these jawans recover from their trauma, he added, their information will be used to reconstruct the ambush to figure out basics like how long the attack lasted.
They were "not able to anticipate the ambush point. The whole company walked into the trap. They were completely boxed in...couldn't escape from any side," he said.
75 members of the central Reserve Police Force and one jawan from the state police were on their way back after a three-day sanitizing operation. Suddenly, they found themselves under attack. Hundreds of Naxals attacked them, opening fire from vantage points on hilltops. Landmines exploded near trees that could have served as safe harbours.
The catalogue of lapses in the planning and execution of the operation is being studied by the Home Ministry. Among them, that the jawans followed the same route on their way back as they had when they headed out on their mission.
Watch the complete interview with the DGP here.