NEW DELHI: Maoists on Wednesday chose to blast the vehicle carrying 10 district reserve guard personnel in Dantewada, which is not quite their ‘core’ area and has seen fewer attacks since the deadly Naxal ambush of 2010 killed 75 CRPF personnel. They avoided strongholds like Sukma or Bijapur where CRPF has been making deeper inroads and setting up forward operating bases (FOBs).
Security agencies are seeing the latest IED attack as a “cowardly” strike timed to coincide with the annual CPI(Maoist) tactical counter offensive campaign (TCOC) that sees stepped up attacks on security forces between March and June, to tide over their failure to notch up any military successes during the TCOC last year. Frustrated at the sustained counter-operations in pocket boroughs like south Bastar — where CRPF has set up around 15 FOBs to break the “Naxal corridor’ and is facilitating a development push in the surrounding villages — the CPI(Maoist)’s Dandkarenya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), appears to have, in a desperate attempt, targetted a police vehicle in a non-core area with comparatively lower vigil, said an officer.
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10 jawans were killed in moist attack in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada
An IED blast was the chosen mode of attack as the Maoists, of late, tend to avoid a direct armed confrontation. A source said road safety operations to detect and weed out IEDs are not always possible in non-core areas as the focus is on sanitizing roads in ‘core’ areas with higher threat perception. Chhattisgarh police sources told TOI that a command IED, which is triggered by a wire running from the operator to the IED, appeared to have been used for the attack. It may have been planted at least a month back and triggered remotely on Wednesday, said an officer.
Though a general alert was shared by the agencies regarding the possibility of Naxal attacks and ambush during TCOC period this year, it did not pinpoint the timing or location.
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“It appears the Naxals consciously planted the IED outside their ‘core’ territory, anticipating that the forces would be far more vigilant and alert while on the move in ‘core’ areas. Obviously, the Maoists were desperate to showcase some successes against the counter-forces as TCOC in 2022 was virtually a failure with no military successes. After decimation of the Maoists in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, particularly their North Telangana Special Zonal Committee, and counter-operations by CRPF and local police in the last two-and-a-half years that have busted Maoist dens in Bihar and Jharkhand, it is virtually left to DKSZC to showcase any CPI(Maoist) success. Wednesday’s IED blast in Dantewada provided them that opportunity,” said another officer in the Central security establishment.
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Sources in the CRPF told TOI that Dantewada IED blast was a desperate attempt by Maoists to showcase their “continued” presence in the Dandkarenya area and ability to carry out surprise attacks. A senior officer ruled out the attack on jawans of DRG, which is made up of local recruits, being aimed as a warning to locals to not join counter-Naxal forces, saying that such “messaging” is usually done by targeting individual personnel.
According to Bastar division IGP Sundarraj P, Left-wing extremists are trying to protract the battle in Chhattisgarh by carrying out desperate IED attacks on security forces, intensifying attacks on economic infrastructure, trying to derail development initiatives with misinformation and going after civilian ‘soft targets’ by painting them as anti-revolutionaries or police informers.
As a result, violent incidents initiated by Maoists in Chhattisgarh went up 246 in 2022 from 188 in 2021. While security forces casualties dipped to 10 from 45 in this period, civilian killings were only slightly lower at 51 as compared to 56 in 2021.
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