West Midnapore:
The massacre of 24 jawans by the Maoists in Midnapore on Sunday has left families of the dead policemen furious at the state government.
Their grief was overwhelming at the funeral held for the jawans, which also saw a gun salute by their colleagues of the Eastern Frontier Rifles.
Earlier in the day, angry families and friends of the security personnel blocked and lay siege to the convoy of five ministers who were heading for the attack spot.
The blockade took place at Salua in West Midnapore, when a team of ministers, led by state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, was going for the gun salute for the Eastern Frontier Rifles troopers who were killed in Monday's attack in Shilda.
Thirty-six policemen at the Shilda camp in West Midnapore were resting in their tents when they found themselves surrounded by flames.
(Read & Watch: Naxals massacre cops, furious Centre wants answers)For hours before that, a truckload of Naxals, men and women, had surrounded the camp, located in a busy market. By 4 pm, they were ready.
It was just another Monday evening for the jawans. Some of them were cooking dinner, others were enjoying a cup of tea. Outside, the Naxals were approaching - some on motorcycles, others in a car, most of them packed into a truck.
The jawans suddenly heard a loud explosion. From across the low walls of the camp, petrol bombs and grenades landed with fury. The policemen inside stood little chance.
Twenty four policemen died, some of them burnt inside their tents. Another seven were injured. That left a handful to combat the nearly hundred Naxals, who burst in with sophisticated firearms and separated the camp with bullets.
West Bengal's senior-most cop, Bhupinder Singh, who visited the disaster zone on Tuesday, admitted that the camp's location made it inherently vulnerable. The shops around made it impossible to place security outside the camp. And when the attack began, the policemen were worried about firing back, and hurting shoppers in the crossfire.
The Naxals raided the armory in the camp. Forty guns have been reported missing.
In Delhi, Home Minister P Chidambaram admitted that the attack showed "indications of failure in some aspects." He added that "only a thorough review will reveal how the police camp with adequate strength was overrun, when there was day light, by the CPI (Maoist)."