If the Maoists repeated what they did in Dantewada, so did the security forces! Similar to Monday’s explosion in Dantewada in which the Naxals had planted the IED in the middle of a pitched road, the explosive at Gwaltor on Wednesday was planted in the road. And significantly, with no lessons learnt, the patrolling party had conveniently
overlooked it just as they had done while travelling in the bus at Dantewada. The state DGP, however, refused to admit any lapses on part of the patrolling party.
A section of the police force believes that the incident could have been averted had standard operating procedure (SOP) been followed. “In sensitive areas, specially like the Maoist-infested areas, a patrolling vehicle should always be preceded by a road opening party (ROP),” said a senior IPS officer. A ROP is a small vehicle that sanitises the area before any big patrolling party crosses that path. “In this case, either there was no ROP or the ROP had failed to detect the IED,” added the officer.
However, state director general of police Bhupinder Singh claimed that it was always a “possibility in a risky area like Jangalmahal.” “There were no lapses. Though the IED was planted in the middle of the road, there is a possibility that the Maoists had planted it last year when that area was a liberated zone. In that case, no one can detect the mine from above,” he reasoned.
Another officer claimed that there was “lack of vigilance”. “When the Maoists use both the primary (triggering explosion) and secondary (opening fire) attack while making an ambush, it can be guessed that a considerable number of them were hiding near the spot. However, none of the jawans who are expected to be very alert had any clue about this,” explained the officer.
The state intelligence branch, on the other hand, like many other alerts, had issued atleast three memos on Tuesday that alerted against an impending Maoist attack on police camps, police vehicles and police personnel during the Maoist bandh.