Maoists kill five Chhattisgarh policemen, loot weapons

Maoists gunned down five policemen in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh on Thursday morning and made away with their weapons, police said. The Maoists opened indiscriminate gun fire at a contingent of the 16th battalion of the Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF) in the Jharaghati forested pocket in Naray anpur district, killing one head constable and four other constables, Additional Director General of Police Ram Niwas said.
 
He said the CAF has a base camp near the attack site, which is about 270 km south of state capital Raipur. Policemen from the camp immediately reached the site and retaliated, but the rebels managed to disperse in the nearby forests.
 
A local police official, who put the number of attackers in dozens, informed that the Maoists escaped with the weapons of the killed policemen. He said police had prior information about a possible Maoist attack in and around the CAF camp which was set up recently to step up operations against the rebels. Extra forces from various police stations have been dispatched to the site, some 30 km from the district headquarters of Narayanpur town, to cordon off the Jharaghati forested area where the rebels are believed to be holed up.
 
(http://www.hindustantimes.com/Maoists-kill-five-Chhattisgarh-policemen-loot-weapons/Article1-707407.aspx  09/06/11, Hindustan Times)