Maoists blast CRPF vehicle; 8 jawans killed

Raipur, May 9: In a gruesome reminder of Dantewada massacre,eight jawans were killed on Saturday, May 8, when the armed rebels blew up their vehicle in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district.

"The Maoists blew up a bullet-proof vehicle in the Koretal forested stretch with a landmine. At least eight CRPF men were killed," Director General of Police Vishwa Ranjan said in news agency report.

Ranjan said that the blast was a highly powerful one which blew up the vehicle and several bodies were ripped apart.

Besides the CRPF personnel, two motorcycle bound civilians too were injured.

Rajan said that the dead CRPF personnel included sub-inspector, three head constables and four constables from the 168 battalion.

He said that the incident took place when they were returning to Bijapur, 480 km south of Raipur, after distributing ration to various.

BK Ponwar, director of Chhattisgarh-based Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare College (CTJWC) said that the incident could have been avoided.

"The CRPF men are repeatedly overlooking a 48-point guerilla warfare guidelines provided them to must adopt in Maoist-dominated Bastar region, they have committed a blunder Saturday by returning back from the same route," Konwar said in a news agency report.

Echoing Konwar's words, a senior police officer said that the CRPF team were attacked due to "gross neglect of warfare manuals".

"I am surprised that despite tip-off about possible attack, the CRPF men were going out without reinforcements and were also very few in numbers. It's a gross neglect of warfare manuals," he said.

Policemen based at Bijapur town, some 10 km away from the blast site, have launched a search operation in the heavily mined area.

OneIndia News