Aurangabad: At least 10 CRPF commandos belonging to its elite COBRA battalion were martyred and five others injured in a Naxal IED blast in the jungles of Bihar's Aurangabad district on Monday.
"While eight personnel were killed on the spot, two others succumbed to their injuries when they were being evacuated," a senior official said.
The jawans of the COBRA unit were ambushed in the IED blast after which an encounter started on Monday afternoon between the two resulting in the killing of three naxals by late night, officials said.
The incident was reported from Chakarbanda-Dumarinala forests of the district, bordering Gaya. Some arms and ammunition, including an AK-47 rifle, INSAS rifle and under barrel grenade launcher were also recovered from the site.
Officials said five other personnel were critically injured in the fierce gun battle that ensued after the IED (Improvised Explosive Device) blast.
CRPF Director General K Durga Prasad and other senior officers are expected to visit the ambush site today.
The jawans belonged to the 205th COBRA battalion and were deployed in the state for conducting anti-naxal operations.
Addition reinforcements of the state police and CRPF have reached the spot and a search operation has been launched.
Officials said over a dozen IED blasts were triggered by the Naxals.
The martyred CRPF men have been identified as Head Constables Anil Kumar Singh, a resident of Buxar in Bihar and K Opendra Singh of Thoubal, Manipur, Constables Sinod Kumar of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, Ramesh Kumar from Hoshiarpur in Punjab, Diwakar Kumar from Khagariya in Bihar, Polash Mondal from South Denajpur in West Bengal, Deepak Ghosh of Nadia in West Bengal, Manoj Kumar of Betul in Madhya Pradesh, Harvender Panwar of Muzaffarnagar in UP and Ravi Kumar from Siwan in Bihar.
Rajnath Singh assures Bihar govt of all possible help
Home Minister Rajnath Singh directed CRPF Director General to visit Gaya-Aurangabad to assess the situation.
The Chief Minister briefed the Home Minister of the steps taken to nab those involved in the attack on the team of COBRA commandos of CRPF, sources said.
The Home Minister assured the Chief Minister of all possible help to the state government to deal with the situation arising out of the attack, the sources said.
Singh expressed his heartfelt condolences to the families of the bereaved martyrs and wished speedy recovery of the injured personnel.
This is one of the biggest casualties of the elite COBRA unit which has been raised by the CRPF for undertaking special jungle warfare operations.
The battalion was deployed in Bihar for conducting anti-Maoist operations. The elite COBRA has been raised by the CRPF for special jungle warfare operations.
Nitish Kumar condoles CRPF jawans' death
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today condoled the death of 10 CRPF commandos in Aurangabad district and announced compensation to their families.
Kumar instructed top officials of the state, including Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, state police chief PK Thakur and Principal Secretary Home Amir Subhani, to rush to Gaya to take stock of the situation and ensure that needful action is taken, an official statement said.
The Chief Minister directed the Home department to immediately pay Rs 5 lakh compensation to the next of kin of each deceased as per provisions of the state government, the statement said.
Additionally, he ordered officials to make available to the kin of the jawans killed, insurance of Rs 20 lakh under the provisions of special scheme in the Naxal-hit districts, it said, adding Kumar also ordered to provide all medical assistance to the injured jawans.
