The incident took place on the road to Bargar, 60 km from Garhwa in Jharkhand, in a CPI (Maoist) forest stronghold which stretches into Sarguja in Chhattisgarh.

Reports reaching Ranchi said the Naxalites abducted Garhwa Zila Parishad chairperson Sushma Mehta and her bodyguard who were also on their way to Bargar.

Garhwa Deputy Commissioner R P Sinha told The Sunday Express: “They are missing.” He said police had located Mehta’s abandoned vehicle.

Police suspect that the Naxalites either forced or conspired with the chief of a panchayat to lure the policemen into an ambush.

“A bandh and a roadblock had been called in the area to highlight problems related to bijli, sadak, paani, shiksha and swasthya. The panchayat chief appealed to Bhandaria BDO Basudev Prasad to come and address their grievance,” police sources said.

Prasad and Bhandaria police station Officer-in-Charge Raj Bali Choudhary set out with men of the state police and Jharkhand Armed Police in three vehicles, escorted by an anti-landmine vehicle.

At least 50 Naxalites were lying in wait on the road to Bargar, 8 km from Bhandaria. Prasad was said to have survived the blast — his phone was later switched off — but Choudhary was killed in the attack that took place around 12.30 pm. Police said 12 other policemen died and two were seriously injured.

The injured policemen were shot by the Naxalites who fled with 11 INSAS rifles, two AK-47s and an SLR.