Gadchiroli:
As polling came to an end in Maharashtra on Tuesday, news broke of poll officials under attack by Naxals in Khamtala village in the Gadchiroli district.
They were held hostage for seven hours and later rescued by commandoes. On Wednesday, they returned safe and sound.
"This is like a rebirth for us," says Sudhakar Gaikwad, one of the rescued polling officials.
Gaikwad, one of the four election officers and government schoolteachers who were surrounded by about a 100 Naxals during their polling duty, is grateful to be alive after a seven-hour-long gun battle with Naxals deep in the jungles of Gadhchiroli.
"The Naxals surrounded us. The BSF personnel got ready and told us to lie low. Then they began firing and the BSF responded," he recalls.
"When the attacks began, I told my colleagues if we are fated to live, we will. Or else it's death. When there was less firing people were coming to vote and we had 58 per cent polling at our booth," said Pramod Jakkanwar, said another of the rescued polling officials.
They were finally air-lifted to safety on Wednesday.
If it had not been for these polling officials it would have been impossible to conduct an election in Gadhchiroli. For them it was duty before life.