A six-month-old baby was killed and her mother was injured when they got caught in the crossfire of a shoot-out between Maoists and security forces in the forests of Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur on Monday evening.
Two jawans of the District Reserve Guards (DRG) — a locally raised anti-insurgency force in Bastar and other insurgency affected regions of Chhattisgarh — were also injured in the shooting.
According to the police, the shoot-out happened around 5 p.m. while an area domination exercise was undertaken by DRG and Central Police Reserve Force (CRPF) in the forests on the outskirts of a sparsely populated village called Mutvandi that lies along the Dantewada border. The team left from Kavadgaon police camp and the encounter took place when they had covered an area of four kilometres; that was when the firing began.
“Prima facie the woman heard the gunshots and tried to escape with her infant but ended up getting caught in the crossfire. We are awaiting more details on the sequence of events,” said Bastar Inspector General of Police P. Sundarraj.
The baby girl died but the woman, who suffered a bullet injury on her finger, was rushed to the village and then to a hospital where she is said to be out of danger.
A police statement noted that Bhairamgarh area committee secretary Chandranna and committee member Mangali were also injured in the encounter.
