A day after Union Home Minister P Chidambaram sent the Naxal leadership a clear message that security forces would continue to engage them till they laid down arms, Naxals ambushed a police patrol in the dense forests of Bhamragarh in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district this afternoon, killing at least 17 policemen.

The attack confirmed fears of an upsurge in Naxal violence since Gadchiroli is the only Naxal-hit district going to polls. The attack took place not far from the Lahiri police station, some 20 km beyond Bhamragarh, a tehsil area which is considered a Naxal stronghold.

“A 25-strong C-60 commando party, a unit of Maharashtra police mainly engaged in anti-Naxalite operations, was on area domination in the jungle when it was ambushed by Naxals around noon. A fierce encounter raged for two-three hours with 15 men from the Lahiri police station also rushing to help them,” a senior police officer said.

The Naxals had blocked the road to Lahiri before springing the ambush. They were said to be 150-200 strong, greatly outnumbering the policemen.

This is the third major attack in Gadchiroli this year after 15 policemen were killed in a Naxal ambush at Markegaon in north Gadchiroli on February 2. Another 16 policemen were killed near Murumgaon on May 21.

A huge influx of Naxals is said to have taken place in the last one month in Gadchiroli and officials too have admitted to it. This had been taken very seriously by authorities and Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla visited Nagpur twice in one month to review preparations for the elections.

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