The 12 policemen died in a Maoist ambush Wednesday
RAIPUR: Police search squads on Thursday recovered bodies of the 12 policemen a day after they went missing following a fierce shootout with Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district.
The slain policemen were part of a 40-member road-opening deployment team that had gone into the interiors of Dantewada district on Wednesday afternoon and fought an hour-long battle with armed Maoist groups.
According to police, a group of around 200 Maoists ambushed the team and looted self-loading rifles (SLRs) from the slain cops.
"We have recovered bullet-ridden bodies of the missing cops from the encounter site," RK Vij, inspector general (Bastar range), said.
"The deceased included eight special police officers, three Chhattisgarh Armed Forces jawans and Hemant Kumar, a station house officer at the Jagargunda police station," he added.
Inspector General (Maoist operation) Girdhari Nayak said: "The gun battle broke out when two separate police platoons went to Tadmetla for road opening. 28 officers managed to return to base but 12 died in the attack."
On July 9, 24 policemen, including 16 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, were killed in a similar shootout in the same district.
Chhattisgarh's mineral-rich Bastar region, comprising five districts of Kanker, Narayanpur, Bijapur, Bastar and Dantewada, has emerged as the nerve centre of Maoist operations in India since June 2005, when locals launched a civil militia movement - called Salwa Judum - that has forced over 50,000 people to flee from their homes and settle in government-run camps due to threats from Maoists.
