13 cops killed in Naxal attack in Orissa

Sat, Feb 16 03:45 PM Nayagarh (Orissa): In the biggest ever Naxal attack in Orissa 13 policemen and a civilian have been killed when more than 400 Naxals attacked towns in Orissa. The policemen were killed confronting the 400 odd Naxals who attacked the district armoury, police station and police training school in Nayagarh and Daspalla towns. The attack that began around 1030 hrs IST on Friday night continued well past midnight. When the dust settled, over a dozen people majority of policemen were killed. Police constable Rajkishore Pradhan was one of those killed. "We were at home when we heard the gun shots. Later when we came I found my husband dead, what will I do now?' says Sanjukta Prahan, wife of a dead policemen, D P Mishra. The Naxals' intention was to loot arms and ammunition, which they did. Police eyewitnesses say, they looted over 700 machine guns, AK 47 rifles and large number of grenades filling up three trucks. The district SP's residence was also seized. "We were not prepared for the attack. They were in large numbers. We had no intelligence report on this," says SP, Nayagarh, Rajesh Kumar. The state police and the CRPF have now launched a massive combing operation in search of the Naxals who vanished into the nearby jungle. Neighbouring districts have also been put on high alert. A similar attack had taken place in the Koraput district in Southern Orissa five years back, but never before have the casualties been so high. The Prime Minister had rightly pointed out recently that the Naxals are the biggest internal security threat to the country, and the Naxals have proved exactly that and have shown that they can strike anywhere, anytime and on anybody. But the unfortunate part is that the police do not seem to be prepared for such attacks.

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