Kharge, Rahul condole deaths of ITBP personnel in Chhattisgarh Naxal attack

NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi condoled the demise of two ITBP soldiers in a Naxal attack on Saturday and said the entire country stands with the affected families in this hour of pain. Gandhi said the news of the brave soldiers' martyrdom in the cowardly attack in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur is extremely sad.

"I pay my humble tributes to the martyred soldiers and convey my deepest condolences to the bereaved families. The country will always remember their sacrifice.

"I hope the injured soldiers recover as soon as possible. The entire country stands with the affected families in this pain," the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha said in a post in Hindi on Facebook.

Kharge expressed grief in a post on X.

"The whole country is united in fighting against Naxalism. We salute the supreme sacrifice of our brave jawans for Mother India.

"Our deepest condolences to the bereaved families and we pray for the speedy recovery of the injured jawans," he said in his post in Hindi.

Two personnel of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) were killed and two policemen injured on Saturday when Naxalites carried out an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district, police said.

The incident occurred around 12 noon in the Kodliyar forest in the Abujhmaad area, when joint teams of security personnel were out on an anti-Naxal operation, Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range) Sundarraj said.

The blast took place when the patrolling teams were returning after the operation.