New Delhi: We are in Dantewada for the election coverage and we have been attacked,” says Mor Mukut Sharma, Doordarshan’s camera assistant, in a video that he recorded for his mother minutes after the TV crew was attacked by Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district on Tuesday.
Sharma, a 35-year-old Lighting Assistant of DD News, and journalist Dhiraj Kumar survived miraculously in the attack which lasted for nearly an hour, but their colleague Achyutanand Sahu, a camera person, was not as lucky and fell to the bullets. The team was in the area to cover the assembly elections in the State.
Sharma expressed love for his mother in the video and said he might not survive the violence. “Mom I love you a lot. I may not come out alive from this attack … the situation is grave… Don't know why, despite staring at death, I feel no fear,” Sharma says, with constant gunshot sounds in the background.
The crew was proceeding to Nilawaya where people haven't voted from the past 20 years, according to the police. It was heading to the village along with police personnel on around eight motorcycles. Kumar said on Tuesday that ahead of Nilawaya village, Sahu was recording visuals at around 10 am and suddenly fell on the ground.
The crew saw their colleague was bleeding. They realised that there was heavy firing from the forest side on left side of the road, Kumar said, adding he dived on to the road and rolled into a ditch by the roadside. Sharma also crawled towards him.
Sahu and two policemen, Sub-Inspector Rudra Pratap Singh and Assistant Constable Manglu, were killed and two other security personnel were injured in the attack. One of the injured policeman succumbed to his injuries on Wedneday.
The naxals have called upon voters to boycott the Assembly polls in the state, which has 90 seats. The first phase of polls covering 18 constituencies of eight Naxal-affected districts Bastar, Kanker Sukma, Bijapur, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Kondagaon and Rajnandgaon will be held on November 12.
(With PTI inputs)
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