Chhattisgarh STF commander gets highest Police Medal posthumously

New Delhi, Aug 14 (AZINS) Chhattisgarh's elite Special Task Force (STF) Platoon Commander Shankar Rao has been posthumously awarded President's Police Medal for Gallantry for showing exemplary courage during a Maoist ambush in Sukma district in 2015.

The highest police medal was announced for Rao, called 'Fighter Rao' by his admiring colleagues, on the 71st Independence Day, which will be celebrated across India on August 15.

He was among the 990 personnel conferred the Police Medals after approval from President Ram Nath Kovind.

Rao was killed with six other colleagues -- Head Constables Rohit Sori, Mohan Uike and Manoj Baghel and Constables Rajman Tekam, Kiran Deshmukh and Rajkumar Markam when Maoists attacked around 60 STF personnel in a forested area near Pidmel village on April 11, 2015.

It was Chhattisgarh STF's single biggest casualty in a day in several years.

In the same area in Sukma, the Central Reserve Police Force had lost 14 men in December 2014. In 2010, Maoists killed 76 security personnel there.