– Sahar Khan
Raipur: The outlawed Maoists detonated a powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast killing eight jawans and a civilian driver on the spot in an edgy district of Bijapur, south Chhattisgarh on Monday afternoon.
According to Sundarraj P, Bastar range inspector general of police, while the team of DRG was returning from the anti-Maoist operation, the Maoists triggered an IED blast targeting a vehicle with the security personnel on board.
Reinforcement was sent to the area and the forces cautiously carried out the rescue operation amid intensified search operation in the region.
The IED carrying heavy explosives was planted underneath the cement concrete road and the explosion left a six-feet deep crater-like wide structure. Owing to the impact, the ill-fated vehicle was ripped to pieces by the explosion, killing all persons on board.
The Maoists, evidently aware about the return of the security forces from the operation along the given route, had executed their plan and carried out the IED blasts.
Chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai has condemned the attack. “The Maoists are frustrated owing to the ongoing anti-Maoist operations in Bastar and carried out the cowardly act. The sacrifice of the jawans will not go waste. Our battle to wipe out the left-wing extremists will continue strongly,” he stated on X.
The Monday IED blast was the first major attack by Maoists after April 26, 2023 when 10 security personnel were killed in an IED blast in Dantewada.
The jungle warfare experts familiar with the guerrilla tactics stated that the basic rules of the warfare should not be flouted as the Maoists often look for the opportunity to carry out the attack using their easiest and most deadly weapon of IEDs against the forces when they find their enemy at the weak spot.
The operations and series of encounters against the left-wing extremists remain a part of the renewed strategy to eliminate Maoist influence in Chhattisgarh state.
In 2024, the Maoists suffered the biggest setback losing their 219 cadre in separate encounters with the security forces in Bastar division.
Bijapur is among the seven Maoist-affected districts in Bastar zone.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had last year declared that the country will be free from the Maoist problem by March 2026.
