‘Red Terror’ reared its ugly face again in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district on Wednesday evening when Naxals blew up a vehicle which was part of a convoy carrying security personnel. The attack – the biggest by Maoists in two years – killed 10 police personnel and a civilian driver, drawing condemnation from all the central government to state authorities.
The blast took place around 1 pm in the Aranpur police station area when a team of the state police’s District Reserve Guard (DRG) was out on an anti-Naxal operation. The Naxals used an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) containing an estimated 40 kg of explosive material to blow up the police personnel’s Multi-Utility Vehicle (MUV). The attack took place after security personnel had received information that Maoists were present in the Darbha division of the area. On Wednesday morning, there was an exchange of fire between the authorities and Naxals. Subsequently when they were returning to base, the Naxals targeted the second vehicle in the convoy and blew it up.
The blast has caused a huge crater in the road – almost 10-feet deep. Police personnel at the spot said they had found around 150 meter-long wire connected to the trigger of the command IED, adding that it seemed around 40 kg of explosive material was used.
Following the Naxal strike, Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel held a high-level meeting to review the situation as question arose on the issue of security and whether lapses had taken place. There are also reports that suggest that a threat of such an attack had been made, but officials had ignored it.
What’s the ground situation? We investigate further.
SOP ignored?
Were there violations of standard operating procedure (SOP) that led to gaps in security, causing the attack? Shortly after the 10 police personnel were killed, questions began to swirl and initial investigations are throwing light on possible violations.
According to reports, the vehicle blown up in the convoy was a rental and was unprotected, leaving those who travelled in it vulnerable to outside attacks. Also questions are being raised about the lack of a road-opening patrol team. For the unaware, a road-opening patrol team is one that checks a route for a possible ambush and clears other threats ahead of the main convoy’s arrival.
In Wednesday’s attack, such a patrol did not clear the route, enabling the Maoists to blow up the car in the convoy.
A former police official speaking to Hindustan Times said that the troop movement in an open minivan appeared to break protocol. He explained, “First and foremost, the movement of the security forces should never be on vehicles on that road. It should be on foot or bikes but if jawans were going on the road, there should be a road opening party (ROP) to sanitise the road.”
“The basic aim of the ROP is to remain on both sides of the road so that the IED could not be triggered and prevent the Maoists from ambushing the team. I don’t think there was any ROP on that road,” he added.
Prima facie, it also seems that the team of security personnel didn’t change the route and used the same way – a lapse in planning that left them vulnerable to an attack. Moreover, experts believe there was a lack of human intelligence. “This is sheer carelessness, nothing else. It should be properly investigated,” a former official said.
A threat ignored?
Besides the apparent lapses in following the SOP, it is being reported that officials had ignored a threat about a looming attack. According to Indian Express, Maoists in Chhattisgarh had sent a letter to authorities warning of retaliation for anti-Naxal operations.
In the letter, according to Indian Express, the Maoists had told security forces that they were creating problems for the locals and warned them that they were planning IED strikes and ambushes to target them.
Over the past few months, state security personnel have been trying to capture the elusive Maoist leader Madvi Hidma, but have been unsuccessful in their attempts. In turn, the Naxals have been retaliating with ambushes and attacks.
Red terror on the rise?
The state of Chhattisgarh has always been a hotbed of Naxal activity with several attacks taking place in the state. According to a government date submitted in Parliament, the state accounted for more than a third of all Naxal-related violence in the country in the last five years, between 2018 and 2022. It had a share of 70 to 90 per cent deaths, including armed personnel, civilians and Maoists.
The report showed that Maoists carried out 275 attacks in 2018, 182 in 2019, 241 in 2020, 188 in 2021, and 246 in 2022 in the state.
Also read: Gadchiroli Files: Maharashtra police start comic strip to counter Naxal propaganda
Authorities said that in 2022, 408 Maoists had surrendered. In fact, in September last year Director-General, Central Reserve Police Force, Kuldiep Singh, had said that Bihar was free of left-wing extremism and security forces have made inroads into areas in Jharkhand that were once inaccessible due to the presence of Maoists. Furthermore, the fight against Naxalism was in its final stages in Chhattisgarh.
However, this attack shows that the ‘red terror threat’ still looms large over the state.
With inputs from agencies
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