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The brutal face of Naxals who killed 27 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh has been exposed with the throats of some of the hapless victims found slit and heads of a couple of them smashed.
According to preliminary post-mortem reports, the jawans were killed by the Maoists in a brutal manner and around three to four bullet wounds were found on the bodies of each of the 27 slain CRPF personnel.
"The Naxalites shot dead the CRPF personnel from a distance and later, they slit open the throats of three and smashed heads of two other jawans," a top police official said.
The bodies of the CRPF personnel killed in a deadly ambush on Tuesday were airlifted from the remote thick forests of Dhodawyee, about 300 km from Raipur, to Dr B R Ambedkar hospital in Raipur for conducting post-mortem on Wednesday.
The official said though 27 jawans were killed the CRPF personnel were able to foil the Maoists' attempt to loot the police armoury.
"The police believes around 15 Naxalites were killed in the cross-firing," he said.
A large number of heavily armed Maoists, perched on a hilltop, had opened fire with automatic weapons on a 63-member security contingent, which was returning on foot from road opening duty.
The dead included a CRPF Assistant Commandant Jatin Gulati after escorted their colleagues going on leave.
"We had no inkling about the presence of the Maoists," said an injured CRPF jawan recuperating at a hospital.
The Maoists, who had climbed trees and nearby hillocks, fired upon the jawans with automatic weapons as they walked back to their camp.
The jawan said the contingent made valiant efforts in fighting back the Naxals for over two hours resulting in casualties among the Maoists.
He, however, could not say how many Maoists were killed.
"We are always ready as we know that encounters can happen anytime and I think that is why we could give them a tough fight and inflict more damage on them than they did to us," the jawan said.
He said some of the Naxals sitting on a tree started firing, diverting their attention. Another jawan Parmanand had earlier said that the Naxals numbering around 200 were in battle fatigue and armed to the teeth.
Parmanand said he tried to evacuate some of his wounded colleagues and secure the weapons of the martyred personnel, but he himself got injured after being hit by four bullets. As additional personnel arrived at the spot, the Naxals started retreating while continuing to fire, he said.