Headphone music costs loss of life to civilian in Naxal ambush

NEW DELHI: Listening to music using head phones attached to his mobile phone proved fatal for a local villager who failed to hear the sound of automatic weapons and was caught in the cross-fire between the security forces and the red rebels in Chhattisgarh yesterday.

When the Naxals ambushed the joint team of CRPF and Chhattisgarh police in Sukma district, Vikram Nishad was heading towards the spot on a motorbike with head phones plugged into his ears.

As he was listening music, he could not hear the sound of the gunfire that was coming from the attack site in the jungles of Tongapal. Even though several people shouted and gestured to Vikram to stop and asked him not to go ahead, the biker could not comprehend anything due to the music and kept going.

Vikram was finally caught in the cross-fire between the security forces and the Naxals and hit by bullets and subsequently killed. He was the only civilian who was killed along with 11 CRPF and 4 Chhattisgarh Police personnel when the Maoists ambushed them in Sukma district.