With security focus on ‘core’ areas, Dantewada was Maoist soft target | India News

NEW DELHI: Maoists on Wednesday blew up a vehicle carrying 10 personnel of the District Reserve Guard in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada, which is not quite their ‘core’ area and has seen few attacks since the ambush of 2010 that killed 75 CRPF jawans. They avoided strongholds like Sukma or Bijapur, where CRPF has been making deep inroads and setting up forward operating bases (FOBs).
Security agencies have viewed the attack as a “cowardly” strike timed to coincide with the annual CPI(Maoist) tactical counter-offensive campaign (TCOC), which sees stepped-up attacks on security forces between March and June, to tide over their failure to notch up any military successes during TCOC last year. Frustrated with sustained counter-operations in strongholds like south Bastar — where CRPF has set up around 15 FOBs to break the ‘Naxal Corridor’ and is facilitating a development push in the surrounding villages — CPI (Maoist)’s Dandkarenya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) appears to have in a “desperate attempt” targetted a police vehicle in a non-core area with comparatively lower vigil, said an officer.

An IED was the chosen mode of attack as the Maoists, of late, have avoided direct armed confrontations. A source said road safety operations to detect IEDs are not always possible in non-core areas as the focus is on sanitising roads in ‘core’ areas with higher threat perception.
Though a general alert was shared by agencies regarding the possibility of Naxal attacks during the TCOC period, it did not pinpoint the timing or location.

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Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel on Dantewada incident: ‘The incident is heart-rending, Naxalism will be uprooted’

“After decimation of the Maoists in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, particularly their North Telangana Special Zonal Committee, and counter-operations by CRPF and local police in the last two-and-a-half years that have busted Maoist dens in Bihar and Jharkhand, it was virtually left to DKSZC to showcase any CPI (Maoist) success. Wednesday’s IED blast in Dantewada provided them that opportunity,” said an officer in the central security establishment.
A senior officer ruled out the attack on jawans of DRG, which is made up of local recruits, being aimed as a warning to locals to not join counter-Naxal forces, saying that such “messaging” is usually done by targeting individual personnel.