Maoists step up attacks to taunt army: Experts

Hardly a week after a 500-strong army deployment landed in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region for the first time, Maoists on Thursday midnight launched their most deadly attack — using nearly a tonne of explosives, the highest ever, blowing up an anti-landmine vehicle and killing 10 policemen.

The June 9 attack in Dantewada district, said to be the biggest rebel raid in terms of the quantity of explosives used in a single attack, is seen by experts as the Maoists way of taunting the army men.

A top police official who served in Chhattisgarh’s “war zone” for a long period, said he suspected that Maoists had used about a tonne explosives for the June 9 Dantewada blast.

“Look at their (Maoists) guts. They are hitting police using a tonne of explosives to toss up an anti-landmine vehicle in the presence of the army in Bastar. The double attack on June 9 was aimed at taunting the army,” the police officer said.

“The midnight attack was the biggest carried out by Maoists in terms of the quantity of explosives they used,” counter-terrorism expert Brigadier (Retd.) BK Ponwar said.

Ponwar, who is a former commandant of the Indian Army’s Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School at Vairengte in Mizoram, said “the twin attacks in Bastar region June 9 and 10 clearly indicate that the Maoists are showing their defiance to the presence of the army”. He wondered why the police forces are flouting jungle warfare manuals over and over again.