advertisement
"Small mistakes are leading to major loss of life..." a senior Chhattisgarh police official told The Quint after the state witnessed one of the most gruesome attacks by Maoists this year, which claimed the lives of 10 jawans and a civilian driver on Wednesday, 26 April.
"Simply closing your eyes in the face of a problem doesn't make it go away or any less problematic than it already is," the official added.
Even as Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel paid tribute to the martyrs in Dantewada on Thursday, 27 April, officials in the know raised multiple questions about the attack, how it was carried out, and the possible missteps that may have allowed the attack to happen.
Here are the five major questions that remain unanswered:
What Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were followed during the movement of troops to and from forests?
What were the operational failures that resulted in the loss of 11 lives, including that of a civilian driver?
How were Maoists able to plan and execute an IED blast between two security camps?
What did the security forces do differently this time, which allowed Maoists to attack?
If the fight against Maoists is really "in its last leg," how are they able to attack troops so close to their camps?
Speaking to The Quint, the senior official said that the reduced number of anti-Maoist operations and the confining of the forces to their camps or district headquarters have bolstered the morale of the Maoists.
After the attack on 26 April, Bastar Inspector General of Police P Sundarraj – while responding to a question of whether SOPs were followed and the Road Opening Party was activated before the DRG personnel's convoy was brought back – said that they were trying to "determine the sequence of events."
Another fact worrying the officials is that the site of the attack is situated between two camps of security forces – one in Aranpur and another in Sameli. Moreover, the Aranpur police station is around 700 metres away.
The IG also revealed that the IED was triggered from a distance of 150-200 meters, and the Maoists were hiding on the left side of the road when coming from Aranpur.
Sources told The Quint that the Maoists couldn't have gotten the chance to carry out an attack so close to the security camps if the troops were being sent out for practices like area domination, search and seizure, among other things.
Another senior official told The Quint:
Another key event under question is the usage of private vehicles to ferry DRG personnel, who often use motorcycles and travel in small groups.
Speaking to The Quint, former Special Director General of Police of Chhattisgarh RK Vij said that the DRG personnel should have been more careful and avoided using vehicles, especially since the Maoists were observing a tactical counter-offensive campaign (TCOC) – as they do every year between April and July.
Chhattisgarh police officials told PTI on Friday, 28 April that the IED was planted around 2 months ago by the Maoists and remained undetected despite a demining exercise that was conducted a day before the attack.
Vij further said, "The SOP during the movement of troops is to ensure that there are no suspicious elements on both the sides."
A 'road opening party' ensures this, as a 'bomb detection' team is also deployed to detect IEDs.
Police officials say that a combination of both these exercises help in either the detection of IEDs or the people planning to trigger it thus increasing chances of mitigating loss of life.
A senior officer who has served in Bastar, which has high Maoist presence, claimed that the relaxed state of approach by the security forces is resulting in sloppy decision-making, allowing the Maoists to exploit their vulnerabilities and target the forces.
A comparative data from the Chhattisgarh government between January 2019 and June 2022 shows a decline in the number of engagement of fire incidents (encounters) from 54 in 2019 and 57 in 2020 to 43 in 2022.
Simultaneously, the number of Naxal incidents has also declined from 165 in 2019 and 159 in 2020 to 131 in 2022.
In his recent visit to Bastar, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also claimed that the fight with Maoists is "in its last leg and would end soon."
Shah had said:
Former special DGP Vij, however, said that while Left-wing extremism has declined, it would be too early to say that the Maoists are nearing their end.
Police officials deployed in Bastar also expressed a similar stance. They told The Quint that the situation on the ground might not be as it seems.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)