In an act of savagery that may even put a beast to shame, Maoists had smashed heads of two jawans and slit throats of three others after killing them during their attack on a CRPF contingent at Dhorai on June 29, autopsy reports of the victims suggest.
“Deep wounds were found in the heads of two bodies, which suggest that the heads may have been hit repeatedly by a hard object after the death of the jawans. It was also found that throats of three jawans were slit after their death,” a member of the autopsy team told this newspaper on Thursday requesting anonymity. The preliminary autopsy report said nearly 10 bodies had wounds made by sharp weapons. “Several bodies bore injuries made by sharp weapons,” P.K. Khandekar, a member of the autopsy team, said.
“The injured jawans who fell unconscious after being hit by bullets may have been hacked to death by Maoists who must have approached them to rob their weapons,” another member of the autopsy team said.
Twenty-seven CRPF troopers were killed in the June 29 Maoist ambush in the jungles Jharghatti at Dhorai.
Autopsies were conducted on the bodies at a government hospital here on Wednesday, before they were flown to different states to hand them over to their respective families.
Meanwhile, an injured jawan being treated in the hospital here recounted the horrific details of the battle for survival launched by the CRPF contingent of 66 jawans when they were ambushed by the rebels.
“The first bullet was fired at us when we were passing by a dilapidated structure inside the forest. Before we could realise what was happening, we were sprayed with bullets from all sides — from nearby tree tops and hillocks,” the 26-year-old jawan Paramanand said.