Thursday’s massive attack on a police patrol in Gadchiroli left 17 cops dead, but it is believed that Naxals too suffered several casualties, including that of two of their senior cadres, South Gadchiroli Divisional Committee secretary Narmada’s husband Kiran and East Bastar commander Bhumanna.

Sources said Naxals, during a meeting on Saturday night, expressed deep concern at the heavy losses they suffered, which could be in the range of 40.

They are learnt to have admitted that the whole operation had actually gone awry, despite they having killed 17 policemen.

“The reason is that they wanted to wipe out the entire police party, but found themselves at the receiving end of a spirited retaliation from the cops, who managed to hold their ground for five long hours despite being exposed to Naxal fire from all around. It shouldn’t have taken Naxals, now estimated to be over 200, less than an hour to kill all the cops since they had the cover of trees and bushes. But the fact that it took them over five hours to kill just 17 of them shows that things didn’t go as planned. In the earlier two ambushes, they could wipe out the entire police parties at Markegaon and Hattigota,” the sources added.

Some other knowledgeable sources from the area, however, put the Naxal toll between 13 and18.

Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police Jayakumar said, “We have reasons to believe that there were many casualties. We are yet to assess how many. It is not for nothing that our men fought them off for such a long time.”