In a tragic incident on Thursday morning, three junior commandos from the elite force Greyhounds lost their lives in a landmine explosion by the Maoists at the Telangana–Chhattisgarh border. The blast took place during a routine patrol in the Wazeedu-Perur forest region of Mulugu district, near the Veerabhadravaram-Tadapalla hillocks.
Routine patrol exercise turns tragic
The commandos were performing an area domination drill when the explosion happened. This is the first reported fatality this year for Telangana Police in its operations against Maoist incidents and insurgents. The officials mentioned that the search operations teams were immediately deployed after the incident, and efforts are currently underway to track who is behind the attack. According to the Indian Express report, a senior official of the Telangana police stated, ”There is no joint operation. The fatalities have occurred during routine domination exercise.”
All about Operation Sankalp
Meanwhile, on April 21, Operation Sankalp, a large-scale counter-insurgency drive, was conducted in the bordering districts of Chhattisgarh and Telangana. Under this operation, around 28,000 personnel from various forces. The forces included Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force, Baster Fighters, along with CoBRA unit, were stationed all over the Bastar region.
Since the beginning of Operation Sankalp, security forces have been involved in at least 35 encounters with Naxalites in the Karegutta hills and nearby forest areas. In a major breakthrough, 22 Naxalites were killed in an intense gunbattle on Wednesday in Chhattisgarh‘s Bijapur district, which is near the Telangana border. According to senior police officials, 26 bodies and around 40 weapons have been recovered so far during the operation.
Moreover, 400 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), six tonnes of food supplies, two tonnes of explosive material, medicines, and more have been seized by the forces.
(With inputs from PTI)