Between a rock and a hard place
Today, I chanced upon three news reports on the recent Maoist attack wiping out almost an entire CRPF patrol, killing 75 paramilitary men and a policeman in Chhattisgarh on April 6. It anguishes me, as it does every conscientious, patriotic Indian, that our paramilitary men became cannon fodder for the Maoists, who after mercilessly carrying out the carnage, walked away with the rifles, SLRs, bombs and other ammunition of the massacred paramilitary men. What’s even more shocking is that 48 of the 82 men of the ill-fated CRPF patrol had little idea of the area they had been patrolling for the one day and two nights before the morning of the attack. These men belonged to the Alpha Company of the CRPF transferred to the location only a week before the attack. Compare them with the rebels, who know the forests like the back of their hands because they were born there and probably have the backing of hundreds of thousands of tribal people. No wonder our jawans were sitting ducks for the Mao