CRPF jawans carry pregnant woman on cot for 6km to hospital

Bijapur: In a humanitarian act, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel on Tuesday carried a pregnant tribal woman in need of medical help on a cot for about six km to get her to a hospital in Naxal-hit Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh, an official said.

During an area domination operation, a team of CRPF’s 85th Battalion visited Padeda village where a school student informed them about the pregnant woman in need of medical help, said Prashant Kumar, deputy commandant of the CRPF’s sector headquarters in Naya Raipur.

The company commander of the squad immediately reached the woman’s house in the Gayatapara area of the remote village with his first-aid team, he said.

When the officer found the woman was in advanced stages of pregnancy and needed urgent medical help, he asked his team to act fast, Kumar said.

As it was not possible for an ambulance to reach the village surrounded by dense forests and rough terrain, the security personnel quickly assembled a makeshift stretcher by tying a cot to a long bamboo, the official said.

They put the woman on the cot and carried it on their shoulders, walking through the jungles having Naxal presence for 6km before reaching the nearest motorable road, he said.

An ambulance was arranged from there and the woman was shifted to the Bijapur district hospital in time, Kumar said.

The CRPF is deployed extensively in Chhattisgarh for anti-Naxal operations and the 85th battalion of the paramilitary force is stationed on the Bijapur-Gangalor road, located around 450km from the state capital Raipur.