Fortunately, Anjali did not suffer as much as a scratch and her father feels the children will overcome the trauma of that night gradually. The family observed the 13th day ceremony of the passing away of their relative three days ago. "My son showed such bravery that night while the courage of my daughter saved his life. She was adamant about getting him out of there inspite of the grave danger -- such is is the power of a sister's love for a brother. They were children and yet my son got hit by five bullets. He was bleeding and the Naxals wanted to know where his papa was," says his father Avdhesh Singh Gautam, referring to those hours as the dance of death in his home.
Gautam was a former vice president of the Kuwakonda Janpad panchayat for three terms (15 years). His wife Pushpa was recently elected vice president.
A member of the Congress party, he refutes his reported association with Mahendra Karma, Chhattisgarh's former home minister who launched the controversial Salwa Judum tribal militia against the Naxalites, and denied being involved in any anti-Naxal activity that would make him their target.
"I have lived and worked with the tribals in my area. The Naxals don't like my popularity with tribals. I was also attacked by an AK-47 in July 2008. Some CPI (Communist Party of India) workers aligned with the Naxals are against me," he alleges.
Abhijit will be discharged in a week or so from the hospital in Raipur, after which his wounds need daily dressing. The thigh will also need plastic surgery. Two rods have been placed to fix the bones while tiny crystals caused by the bullets are still caught in his flesh, says his father.
The boy, who wants to be a police officer, changed school some 10 days ago, and while he escaped near death, his impending worry is about missing days at his new school.
David Toppo, the policeman who defended Abhijit's family that night, will need further surgery. Toppo's lower jaw is broken, he lost some of his teeth and his tongue which had split has been stitched.
"The doctors say his healing will take some time. Since my family is in the village I stay at the hospital with him," says his father Eliezer.
David is his eldest son, the only child who is employed while Eliezer's other four children are studying. David, a tribal, joined the Chhattisgarh police in 2008. At 24, he nearly lost his life that night -- he was airlifted in a helicopter -- and remains in ICU almost a fortnight after the event.
He has walked a little for the first time since the attack two days ago, but has not communicated by writing on a notebook lately, says his anxious father.
In the offensive against the Naxals, it is the personal human tragedies of people like young David or 12-year-old Abhijit or poor tribals caught in the cross-fire -- that bring to light the truth that the greatest loss in any conflict is always felt by a grieving mother, a broken father, a tormented child -- and it is almost always borne alone.
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