Security Forces Uncover 70-Metre-Long Naxal-Made Tunnel In Chhattisgarh’s Bastar Forest

A police officer said on Wednesday that security staff found a 70-meter-long tunnel dug by Naxalites in a thick forest near the border of Dantewada and Bijapur districts in Bastar division. The tunnel looks like it is being used as a bunker or a place to dump trash. It was reported to the police that there was an underground tunnel like this in the Bastar division, but this is the first time they have seen it.

The tunnel, which is about 70 meters long and 6 feet deep, was found on Tuesday in the Bijapur district forest by a group of Dantewada police officers working together on an anti-Naxal mission, said the Dantewada Additional Superintendent of Police.

He said that people from the District Reserve Guard, the Bastar Fighters, both state police units, and the 230th battalion of the CRPF were participating in the operation.

“While on patrol near Todopat-Uspari village, security staff saw the tunnel opening from a roof.” Its gaps were filled with long trees, bushes, and dirt, he said.

Barman says this is the first time in the Bastar area that an underground tunnel has been found in this way.

At first glance, it looks like Naxalites dug this tunnel by hand so they can use it as a bunker to hide from security guards while operations are going on in the area. “They may have also been dumping things related to Naxalism there,” the police officer said.

They will know more about it after the review, though, he said.

“Police had received inputs about such a tunnel being dug by Naxals in forests under the Bastar region in the past, but it was spotted for the first time,” a different police official stated.

Seven districts make up the Bastar division. Dantewada and Bijapur are two of them.

At the same time, Barman said that the anti-Naxal action began because of information that Maoist cadres from the Bhairamgarh and Indravati area committees were in villages on the border between Dantewada and Bijapur districts.

He said that around a minute or so ago, security guards and Naxalites fired a few rounds from BGL (barrel grenade launchers). They quickly left the scene, he said.

Barman also said that on their way back, security staff took down three Maoist memorials and found a cooker bomb that had been placed in the forest.

Notably, on Tuesday, three CRPF members were killed and 15 were hurt in a fight with Naxalites along the border between Sukma and Bijapur districts. The three killed were commandos from the CoBRA team.