Raipur, October 30: Dantewada Superintendent of Police (SP) Abhishek Pallav broke down on camera while talking about the Naxal attack that claimed three lives including of a Doordarshan (DD) cameraman. Speaking to news agency ANI, Abhishek Pallav said more people would have died if his constable had not confronted Maoists who carried out the ambush.

"Naxals took the camera of one of the media persons and dragged other two. My constable fought the Naxals; else two more media persons could've been harmed," teary-eyed Pallav said. A Maoist ambush on Tuesday killed Doordarshan cameraman Achyuta Nanda Sahu and two police officers in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district.

A Doordarshan crew was moving from Aranpur police station to Nilaway village in vehicles with a security patrol when they were attacked. "Two police personnel died on the spot while the cameraman, who suffered grievous injuries, later succumbed to his injuries," Deputy Inspector General of Police P Sundarraj told the media.

Following the attack, DM Awasthi, Special DG for Anti-Naxal operations, said Naxals were miffed at the construction of the road in Aranpur. "Today's ambush was to target the road construction work in Dantewada's Aranpur. Naxals had warned against causing harm if the road construction work continued," Awasthi said. He added more anti-Naxal operations would be conducted.

Meanwhile, DD News in a tweet said: "DD News had deputed a team to cover the Chhattisgarh polls, comprising cameraperson Achyuta Nanda Sahu, Dheeraj Kumar and M.M. Sharma. In a Naxal attack, Sahu was martyred. The entire DD News family salutes his service and stands by his family in this hour of grief."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 30, 2018 05:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).