‘Ma, I love you, may die today’: Doordarshan staffer’s video during Chhattisgarh attack
Shocking news emerged on Tuesday when Doordarshan cameraperson Achyuthanand Sahu was shot dead during a Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district. The attack also resulted in the deaths of two police personnel, constable Vishnu Netam, and assistant constable Rakesh Gautam.
Achyuthanand was accompanied by two of his colleagues, reporter Dheeraj Kumar and assistant Mormukut Sharma, who witnessed the attack. In tragic videos that have emerged from the incident, Mormukut can be seen recording what he believed to be his last message to his mother, as he believed that he too would die.
Tweeted by Republic TV journalist Aditya Raj Kaul, the first video shows Mormukut lying on the ground, in the undergrowth of the forest beside the road which they were driving on.
“There has been a terrorist attack. We are in Dantewada… had come for election coverage. We were on our way and the army was with us. Suddenly, we were surrounded by Naxals,” he says to the camera, as gunshots are heard in the background.
“Mummy, if I am alive… it will be a consolation. Mummy, I love you a lot. It’s possible I may be killed in this attack. The circumstances are not right,” he says, and adds after a pregnant pause, “I don’t know why, I don’t feel afraid even though I can see death before me. It is difficult to survive… There are 6-7 jawaans here. They have surrounded us. I will just say this…”