Security personnel at the site of the blast driver in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, Monday. (PTI)
Naxals used an improvised explosive device weighing 60 to 70 kg to blow up a truck in Bijapur district on Monday, killing eight security officials and their civilian driver in the largest attack on Chhattisgarh security forces in two years, according to authorities.
Police believe the potent IED was set along the security personnel’s route a long time ago. Around 2:15 p.m., DRG officers from Dantewada district were returning in their Scorpio vehicle from an anti-Naxalite operation when the explosive device detonated close to Ambeli village, which is under the Kutru police station area, according to Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range) Sundarraj P. The officer stated that eight security men, four from each of the state police units Bastar Fighters and District Reserve Guard (DRG), who were in the SUV and the driver were immediately murdered. The incident took place about 70 kilometers from the district headquarters of Bijapur.
Police had previously claimed that DRG owned all of the jawans murdered in the attack. The majority of DRG’s staff is drawn from the ranks of Naxalites who have surrendered and the local tribal community.
The bodies were being evacuated, and reinforcements were hurried to the scene. To find those behind the killings, security forces conducted a search operation in the region, according to Sundarraj.
“Joint teams of security personnel conducted an anti-Naxalite operation on the borders of Narayanpur, Dantewada, and Bijapur districts in the Bastar region for three days starting on January 3 that involved the personnel targeted by Left-Wing extremists,” the IG stated.
According to him, the three-day operation claimed the lives of five Naxalites and a DRG chief constable. The operation in south Abujhmaad featured DRG personnel from Dantewada, Bijapur, Bastar, Kondagaon, and Narayanpur, as well as members of the Special Task Force (STF).
Following proper patrolling by the Road Opening Party (ROP) and a de-mining exercise along the route, patrolling teams arrived in Bedre (Bijapur) and then departed for their respective district headquarters (in separate vehicles), according to Deputy Inspector General of Police (south Bastar) Kamlochan Kashyap.
He stated that Naxalites used IEDs to target a vehicle carrying DRG and Bastar Fighters members from Dantewada. The IED used in the attack appears to have weighed between 60 and 70 kg. On-site forensic specialists are compiling precise information, Kashyap stated.
Because cables were buried deep in the ground and grass had grown on the soil layer around the device, the early analysis indicates the IED was old and planted a long time ago, he said.
