Investigators believe that the improvised explosive device (IED) used to blow up the police vehicle was installed a day or two prior to the ghastly assault, as an inquiry into the Dantewada Maoist attack, which left 11 people dead on Wednesday, including 10 District Reserve Guard (DRG) jawans and a driver, is ongoing. The security personnel were returning from a counter-insurgency operation when the automobile they were travelling in was blown up by Maoists.
Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range) Sundarraj P stated, “The explosives appeared to have been planted using what initially appeared to be a tunnel excavated beneath the road,” while answering a query regarding whether the IED was buried beneath the Aranpur-Jagargunda road, the scene of the tragedy.
The foxhole notion was also reaffirmed by a senior Chhattisgarh police official and a bomb specialist from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) who were present there.
“The trenches alongside the road made it easier to dig a hole using iron bars and rods to take nearly 60 kilograms of explosives inside. We suspect this was done a day or two before the explosion and the sheer volume of explosives resulted in the formation of a deep crater,” informed the policeman. It was then set off using cables hanging from a tree 150 yards within the forest next to the road.
He was overseeing the process of filling in the crater at the scene of the explosion, where pieces of the exploding truck and the remains of people could still be seen more than 24 hours later.
He proceeded by highlighting that the perpetrators were accurate with their objective because five minutes prior to the blast, they had allowed three trucks carrying civilians to pass. One of the trucks was identical in manufacture and style to that used for transporting the jawans who have now been martyred.
The cop disclosed, “We also suspect that they picked the specific location for the blast as this is one area within the road connecting Aranpur and Saneli villages where some kind of phone signals are available. This along with local support was vital in tracking the movements of the 50 jawans returning from an anti-Maoist operation in the jungles in four different vehicles.”
He mentioned that decoys were positioned at ceremonial checkpoints set up to commemorate the local mango harvest festival, Aama Pandum. “This is celebrated at a mass scale and such check posts are set up where exchange of mangoes for some symbolic cash takes place. We suspect that this was also used to keep an eye on the movement of the jawans,” he asserted. The IGP had earlier explained that further inquiry was necessary, but this angle was also being investigated.
In response to the attack, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel noted that 75 security force camps had been created in Naxalite strongholds over the previous four years, as opposed to the conventional practice of only doing so in buffer zones.
“Now, there is no need to go to Sukma to reach Jagargunda as roads have been built from Aranpur and Bhairamgarh to reach there. Puvarti (in Bijapur district), which is called the headquarters of Hidma (dreaded Naxal commander), has now been surrounded from all sides (by security force camps),” he observed.