CPI(Maoist) rebels are using pressure or anti-personnel improvised explosive devices to strike terror in dense forests where unsuspecting poor men in search of roots, bark or bamboo can simply tread on an explosive and get blown up.
A tragedy occurred at Bulbul forest in Lohardaga district earlier this month, where seven people of Ghaghree village from adjoining Latehar district came to cut bamboo sticks. A pressure IED went off, a 35-year-old man from a particularly vulnerable tribe died instantly. Latehar SP Prashant Anand said the explosives seemed to have been planted by CPI(Maoist) zonal commander Ravinder Ganjhu’s squad.
The Telegraph recently spoke to CRPF inspector-general Sanjay Anand Lathkar about the Maoists’ booby trap. Excerpts:
- Is pressure IED or anti-personnel IED the new deadly device of Maoists?
- Is the anti-personnel IED any different from the regular IED?
The scale of destruction by the anti-personnel IED is limited. The regular ones blast an entire area
- Anti-personnel IED takes a toll on poor civilians. Solution?
Poor civilians must rise against Maoists. They must stop giving Maoists food, shelter and demand to know why Maoists are killing poor people. Villagers must revolt against the Maoists
- You have GPR (ground penetration radar) to detect booby traps. Is it useful?
The GPR has to be calibrated. Jharkhand has various things beneath the earth, iron ore in Chaibasa, bauxite ore in Lohardaga, mica in Giridih, coal, limestone, quartz and granite, among others, in Palamau. So the GPR is to be calibrated according to the various deposits beneath the earth. Such calibration is both time-taking and awkward
- What about trained sniffer dogs?
They are definitely useful. They are very hard-working too, a sniffer dog rests only after a walk of 5km or 6km with its handlers
- Why is a sniffer dog’s jaws shut by the handler?
Its jaws are shut to help it use its nose more. But here’s the catch. On hilly terrain, a sniffer dog starts breathing from its mouth which affects smell retention.
- Maoists are laying anti-personnel IEDs on even small dirt tracks of forests.
They know that security forces will be coming on it as on sensitive tracks we do not use vehicles. With anti-personnel IEDs laid on such narrow paths, it’s all the more risky for security forces
- You have deep metal detectors. Are they useful?
If a 100-foot-long and 75-foot-wide helipad is to be sanitised with a deep metal detector, it takes nearly an hour