Urban Naxals: The Making of Buddha in a Traffic Jam

by Vivek Agnihotri

While the CRPF team was returning, Naxalites blew up the bus with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), commonly known as landmines. Though overwhelmed by the heavily armed ambush of Naxalites firing from the heights, the CRPF men fought back and the encounter lasted until all eighty men fell one by one and those who survived ran out of ammunition. The Naxals then climbed down and shot the wounded men and looted their weapons. Seventy-six CRPF men were killed by over a thousand Naxals comprising of a supporting cast of local militia and sangam village associations. ‘It was a total siege,’ a police officer reported. ‘The CRPF men were attacked not just from three sides, but even from the open area.’ Some defenceless surviving CRPF men pretended to be dead but Naxals searched bodies, shot the pretenders and looted all weapons and ammunition. Only three rifles were found at the site of encounter. It was a swift affair and perhaps the deadliest in the history of independent India. Even at the Line of Control (LOC) and in Kashmir, where our forces have been fighting an unending battle with Pakistani forces and terrorists, we never lost so many soldiers in a single attack.

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