Abject failure by police brass costs dearly

Chhattisgarh Maoist attack in which 10 jawans and a civilian had been killed is yet another grim reminder of not only the bloody violence of the Maoists but also that of the most insensitive planning by the police concerned. The IED blast that took the lives of the tribals inducted into anti-Maoist operations and that of the surrendered Maoists (5) was a pre-planned attack of the Maoists operating in the area.

Either the law and order agencies are refusing to learn their lessons from such incidents or they are not bothered about the lives of security personnel involved in such operations. Look at the timeline of the incidents that led to the IED blast so easily by the Maoists in the area. On April 18, Congress MLA Vikram Mandavi's convoy was fired upon by the Maoists while he was touring the Bijapur area. He escaped narrowly as the weapon got jammed and his alert driver sped away from the spot averting a tragedy. What is not known here is whether the gun aimed at the MLA was really jammed or was it a ploy of the Maoists to lure the policemen into a trap.

The foolish anti-naxal force bosses planned an anti-Maoist ambush without thinking of the consequences. There were several instances in the past when such attempts had been made and the forces walked into the trap. An experienced police force would never rush into any operation without proper planning and surveying the ground situation. The failure of the intel here, too, is obvious. It is said that the police even sanitised the route. But the Maoists waited for the sanitisation process to be completed and planted the explosive later.

According to an initial assessment by the central forces deployed in Dantewada, this incident of failed attack on the MLA set in motion events that culminated in what was the biggest strike by Maoists on security forces in Chhattisgarh in the last two years. Ten personnel from the state police's District Reserve Guard (DRG) and a civilian driver were killed in Wednesday's blast, carried out using an improvised explosive device containing an estimated 40kg of explosive material. The attack took place under the Aranpur police station area between 1pm and 1:30 pm on the fateful day. The security personnel moved from their headquarters in Dantewada town to the Aranpur police station and left their vehicles parked at the station for two days before embarking on their combing operations.

This is not a blunder but a suicidal decision at best. Look at the whole scene afresh now: There is a deliberately engineered failed attack on the ruling party MLA, police seeks revenge, a haphazard plan is scripted to take on the Maoists from the area, route sanitization done in right earnest but a bit too early, team leaves in two vehicles and parks those at the police station in full visibility of everyone for two days and takes back the same vehicles after nabbing two Maoists. This does not sound like an anti-Maoist or anti-Maoist operation plan but more like walking into a filmy trap. It is not just the forces that have been complacent but even the government. Did it presume that the Left Wing Extremism was dead and gone as the Chief Minister puts it? Or has it forgotten basic policing methods in such areas? The government owes an explanation to the nation. And the police need training by either the Telangana or the AP police.