Naxals attacked CRPF jawans as they were having lunch

"It cannot be termed as an intelligence failure says" Special Director General of the CRPF, D M Awasthi.

Three days after the horrific Sukma, Chhattisgarh attack by Naxals in which 25 CRPF jawans were killed, there is a lot of introspection that is on. It has been termed as a raid by the Home Ministry as opposed to an ambush as is being reported by the media. While Home ministry officials say that the standard operating procedure was not followed, it has been found that the attack took place when the jawans were having their lunch.

"It cannot be termed as an intelligence failure," said Special Director General of the CRPF, D M Awasthi. The incident should be termed as a raid and not an ambush he said. He further added that the Naxals had noticed the CRPF team every day, while they were patrolling the area.

"They were attacked while they were eating. I will not say that it was an intelligence failure of strategy collapse," he added while stating that he would look into the matter and resolve things as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Home ministry sources say that the CRPF team may have lowered its guard as a result of which this attack took place. "Due to this, the Naxals got the opportunity to attack in multiple directions. There was distraction fire at first and when the jawans looked that way, a huge team of Naxals carried out the attack in the opposite directions," the official added.

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