Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday called for “introspection” following the killing of 12 CRPF personnel in an ambush by Maoists in Chhattisgarh last week and said he had ordered an inquiry to identify lapses behind it.
He told the Lok Sabha that the attack on security personnel in the Sukma forests was an outcome of desperation among the Left Wing Extremists (LWEs) as they had suffered unprecedented losses last year.
“However, there is a need for introspection over this incident. I have directed the DG, CRPF, to conduct a detailed inquiry into the incident so that the lapses that led to it can be identified, as this will reduce the possibility of repetition of such incidents in future,” he said.
Unprecedented success
The unprecedented success of the security forces of late had led to “evident uneasiness” among the LWE groups, he told the Lok Sabha.
Security forces had achieved tremendous success during 2016 in all LWE-affected States, particularly in Chhattisgarh, where 135 LWE cadres were killed, 779 arrested and 1,198 surrendered, Mr. Singh said.
The number of violent incidents in Chhattisgarh also dropped by 15% from 466 in 2015 to 395 in 2016.
The number of LWEs killed increased by 150% (89 in 2015 to 222 in 2016) in 2016 while surrenders and arrests registered a combined increase of 47% over 2015 (2238 to 3282), he said.
Only three security personnel lost their lives in 2016 against 15 in 2015, he said.
The CRPF personnel were ambushed on March 11 by Maoists with heavy firing and simultaneous use of IED blasts, the Home Minister said, adding that two of them were seriously injured but were out of danger.
The Maoists took away 13 weapons and 2 wireless sets of the security personnel.
Compensation details
Mr. Singh named all the personnel killed and gave details of compensation to their families.
The next of kin of the martyred CRPF personnel would be provided ₹35 lakh as ex gratia from the Central government, ₹20 lakh from the CRPF’s risk fund and ₹1 lakh from the CRPF welfare fund, the Home Minister said.
