New Delhi: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will make an on-the-spot assessment on Wednesday and review the situation in Chhattisgarh after Naxals carried out the deadliest attack and killed 76 CRPF personnel.
Chidambaram, who left for Raipur Wednesday morning, is expected to meet Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and other senior security officials, sources said.
An AN-32 aircraft has been sent to bring the bodies back after the biggest ever Naxal strike in the nation killed 76 CRPF jawans on Tuesday. The attacks came just two days after the Union Home minister said Naxals were focusing on low intensity strikes.
Even as the Union Home Secretary insists there wasn't any intelligence failure, Chidambaram says the Operation Greenhunt will continue.
On Tuesday 76 CRPF personnel, who appeared to have walked into the Naxal's "trap", were killed when they were literally caught sleeping in the Mukrana forests of Dantewara district of Chhattisgarh, one of the strongholds of the Naxals.
The attack took place between 6 AM and 7 AM on a batch of 82, including 80 CRPF personnel. Two were from the local police.
The personnel were returning to the base camp as part of joint operation when it came under fire from hill features just about four kilometres away.
Virtually an entire company of the CRPF was wiped out when 75 of its personnel including Deputy Commandant Satyawan Singh Yadav and Assistant Commandant B L Meena along with the head constable of the Chhattisgarh police were killed.
The attack shook the Centre and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a meeting with Home Minister P Chidambaram and assessed the situation. Both of them expressed shock over the attack and grief over the loss of lives.
Prime Minister had called it a "horrific" incident. Chidambaram, rattled by the "very high" casualty, said something must have gone "drastically wrong" in the joint operation as the personnel seemed to have walked into a trap.
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