Despite the Centre's effort to curb the Naxal movement in the country, a large number of security force personnel lose their lives in attacks by Naxalites every year. Here is a list of Naxal attacks that shook the nation over the last few years.
At least 22 security personnel lost their lives in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur Naxal attack on Saturday. "22 security personnel have lost their lives in the Naxal attack at Sukma-Bijapur in Chhattisgarh," said Bijapur Superintendent of Police, Kamalochan Kashyap. Around 31 sustained injuries in the encounter in Bijapur on Saturday, Chhattisgarh Police said.
Earlier this year on March 4, three jawans of the Jharkhand Jaguar (JJ), a special unit of the state police department, lost their lives and two others sustained injuries in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast planted by Naxals in the Jharjhara area of the state's West Singhbhum district.
Prior to that in March 2020, a total of 17 security personnel of DRG and STF lost their lives in the encounter with Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Sukma.
The same year in February, Naxals blew up a portion of a school building in Bihar's Gaya district, but no one was injured in the incident.
In 2019, four security personnel were killed after Naxals attacked a PCR van carrying a police party in the Chandwa police station area of Latehar district of Jharkhand in November.
The same year in May, 15 police personnel and a driver had lost their lives in a landmine blast triggered by the Naxals in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli.
In March 2018, eight personnel of the 212 Battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed in an IED blast by Naxals in the Kistaram area of Chhattisgarh's Sukma district. The CRPF personnel were carrying out an area-domination operation in the area when their mine-protected vehicle (MPV) was reportedly blown up.
Later in October in the same year, two police personnel and one media person were killed in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada.
In April 2017, a total of 26 CRPF personnel were killed and eight others injured during an encounter that took place at the Burkapal-Chintagufa area in the middle of the Maoist violence-hit south Bastar area in Chhattisgarh.
In March 2017, 12 CRPF jawans were killed in a Maoist attack in insurgency-hit Sukma district in Chhattisgarh. The attack was an ambush. After killing the jawans, the Maoists stole 10 weapons from the dead troopers and detonated an IED explosive.
( With inputs from ANI )
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