18 cops killed in Maoist ambush

Mumbai
Oct. 8: A day after the Union home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, said in Mumbai that Naxals would be taken on if they did not forego the path of violence, the Naxals answered with trademark ferocity, gunning down 18 policemen and engaging forces for several hours in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district on Thursday before retreating.
The 18 policemen of the elite anti-Naxal C-60 commandos were killed after being ambushed by a group of 150-200 Naxals armed with sophisticated weapons. The encounter took place in the Laheri police station area.
[A police informer identified as Suresh Alami was beheaded in Gadchiroli just before the third major Naxal strike in this district, PTI reports. About 15 Naxals were also killed.]
According to a senior police officer, at around 3 am a team of policemen comprising 40 C-60 commandos ventured into the forest in search of Naxals as they had specific inputs that Naxals were hiding in there. “At around 11 am the police and Naxals came face to face and firing took place between them,” said the officer. “Around 2.30 pm the firing stopped and, during the encounter, 18 policemen lost their lives,” said a source.
Source::DC