Jagdalpur
On Monday afternoon, Naxalites triggered the detonator of a 70 kg Improvised Explosive Device (IED) laid four years ago near Ambeli village on the Kutru-Bedre road, 55 km from Bijapur district headquarters. Was blown up.
This explosion was so powerful that where the explosion occurred, the cement road of one foot thickness was torn apart and a crater ten feet deep and 25 feet in diameter was formed there. After the explosion, the body parts of the soldiers and the parts of the Scorpio SUV vehicle were scattered within a radius of 500 meters.
What is triggered IED, how was it laid?
The road from Kutru to Bedre was asphalted about ten years ago. A few years later, the bridge and part of the road were washed away in the rain. When repairs were made in 2020, Naxalites laid a triggered IED in the middle part of the road.
The Naxalites dug a tunnel using fox hole technique and laid a triggered IED weighing more than 70 kg, so that maximum damage could be caused to the soldiers. Years later, his plans also succeeded.
A triggered IED is one in which the IED can be triggered with the help of a battery, remote control, infrared, magnetic or trip wire. Now seeing the opportunity, this IED was triggered by trip wire technique and exploded.
Switch pressed under tree, explosion from 300 meters away
To trigger the IED laid under the road, the Naxalites had pressed the switch connecting the detonator under the ground near the root of a tree and covered it with soil and stones, so that the bomb disposal squad could not detect it. The bark of the tree was peeled for the symbol, so that it could be exploded when the time came.
On Monday, when the security forces came out of Bedre, the Naxalites made preparations for the blast. The switch buried under the tree was connected with a wire and taken to the forest, about 300 meters away, under a tree. Taking aim from there, the vehicle number 11 of the convoy of soldiers was blown up. The explosion also broke the glass of the vehicle traveling 200 meters behind.
First eruption in the 1990s
The first evidence of Naxalites planning to use IEDs was in a notebook recovered by the police during a shootout in Nachinapalli village in Warangal district of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh in 1986. It was told that Naxalites are learning the techniques of laying landmines and using IEDs.
After this, in the 1990s, Naxalites targeted the police vehicle by detonating the first landmine in Konta area of undivided Bastar district. Two years later, after the election vehicle was blown up in Bade Dongar in North Bastar in 1992, Naxalites have made landmine explosion their main weapon, because it can cause more damage without any danger.
In the last 24 years since the formation of Chhattisgarh state, 1313 security forces personnel and civilians have been killed in 1197 such incidents of landmine blasts.
