* The colleagues of head constable Afzal Ahmed recounted how over a year ago, he and a few others were ambushed near Jhumra Pahadi, close to Bokaro. One of the jawans was died but the CRPF men had managed to bring down a dozen Naxals. Soon after, Ahmed had been posted at the sensitive at Chamri Himmat and Raghunath Temple in Jammu. Sadly, on Tuesday, Ahmed had no time to react.

* In his 26 years of service, Head Constable Rishikesh Rai had been in some of the toughest terrains. Before Rampur, he was posted at Srinagar with the 62nd Unit of the CRPF. The CRPF records tell of a man who had stayed in most challenging areas of J&K and the north-east for over two decades. Rai was no stranger to combat and had been part of teams that had been rewarded for valiance not once but on six occasions. But on Tuesday, he was shot dead inside the control room itself. As his comrades picked up his coffin, the cries of his three schoolgoing daughters rent the air. A woman fainted and tears flowed from the eyes of Constable Raj Kumar, one of the pallbearers.

* Head Constable Ramji Sharan Mishra was no stranger to challenging situations either. His service file still carries a commendation certificate the SSP of Ludhiana had presented him for his stint during Punjab insurgency.

CRPF: Not less than 4 attackers

Few answers are forthcoming at the CRPF’s group centre at Rampur, where terrorists’ bullets felled eight men and injured five on the first day of the new year.

What rankles the CRPF is not only the marked lack of resistance but also their inability so far to provide even workable clues about the identity of the assailants.

“All we can say at this moment is that there were not less than four men. It seems that the whole attack was carried out within five minutes,” said Karamvir Singh, IG, CRPF.

And in the 22 years in CRPF, he had been posted in the north-east as well as the Valley. However despite the experience and valiance his body is also on its way to his village in the Dattia district in Madhya Pradesh.

* Survived by two daughters and a son, Constable Manvir Singh of Baghpat’s Dhnana Tikri village had joined the CRPF in 1994. Since then, he had spent 10 years in the “hard areas”. After those years, he considered his time in Rampur “considerably better”, says his uncle Ranvir Singh. Ironically, that was where tragedy struck.

* All of 22, Constable Vikas Saini was the youngest of the victims. His aged father Kanwarpal, who had come to take his body back to his native village, Haridwar’s Bahadurpur, believes it was the “negligence of the senior officials” that took away his son’s life.

Having joined last year and yet to go to a hard area, the Political Science post-graduate had even fired 18 rounds at the intruders. Only one bullet was left in his magazine when he breathed his last.

* Constable Devendra Kumar had joined the CRPF along with Saini. Posted with Saini at the gate, he had shared the same fate.

* Constable Anand Kumar Singh, who died in the control room, had survived three years in Manipur. His last posting was Srinagar. It was hard for his wife Babli and other relatives to understand how peaceful Rampur could turn out so deadly.

It is precisely this perception of Rampur as a peace zone made it a terror target.

Not only were the jawans outside the campus, the post was unguarded as its construction was incomplete.

Despite alerts, the main gate was open to all. Even at night, villagers from Aghapur and neighbouring villages passed through the camp.

And when a New Year’s party for the officers was over at 1.30 am, many of the jawans retired for the night. No checks were made of the shacks where the intruders had apparently hidden.