Bhubaneswar: Odisha Police initiated a move to honour the 16 police officers and personnel who were part of ‘Operation Gosmah’, which was launched following the deadly Maoist attack in Nayagarh 17 years ago.
In a letter to Director General of Police (DGP) Y B Khurania, ADG, Operations, Sanjeeb Panda has proposed President’s Medal for Gallantry for the police officers and personnel who were part of the operation, considered one of the most coordinated anti-naxal operations in the country.
Notably, families of two martyred security personnel involved in the operation recently submitted representations to the DGP citing non-recognition of their sacrifice.
In his letter, ADG Panda has recommended the names of the two martyrs along with four constables, one subedar, a deputy subedar, one havildar, a sub-inspector and six IPS officers for President’s Medal for Gallantry for displaying rare and incredible bravery during ‘Operation Gosmah’ which was launched after the Maoist attack in Nayagarh in February 2008, TNIE reported.
During the operation, assistant commandant P K Satapathy of Special Operation Group (SOG), constable Susanta Gouda of Berhampur p
olice and sepoy S N Panda of 7th Battalion OSAP had made the supreme sacrifice. While assistant commandant Satapathy was posthumously awarded Ashok Chakra for his incredible bravery and contribution in Operation Gosmah, the bravery of other officers and personnel including the two martyrs has gone unrewarded so far.
Over 400 heavily armed Maoist rebels had launched a fierce attack on Nayagarh district police armoury, armoury of Police Training School in Daspalla, Nuagaon police station and Mahipur police outpost on the night of February 15, 2008, taking Odisha government by complete surprise.
The Maoists overpowered and killed 15 police personnel and looted huge cache of arms, including sophisticated and automatic weapons like light machine gun, AK-47, INSAS and self-loading rifles, Sten guns and other arms. Nayagarh district had not witnessed any Maoist activity till then.
Though the anti-Maoist preparedness and command and control mechanism of Odisha Police was at a nascent stage, senior police officers of Berhampur, Ganjam, Kandhamal and Baliguda as well as CRPF immediately swung into action to launch ‘Operation Gosmah’.
The security forces tracked down the Maoists in Gosmah forest under Tarasingi police limits in neighbouring Ganjam district on February 16 afternoon. By then, the Naxals had already taken position on the elevated hills with LMG and other automatic weapons. However, the security forces continued to launch counter attacks forcing the Maoists to retreat, leaving behind huge cache of more than 700 weapons and 70,000 rounds of ammunition.