http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100520/jsp/frontpage/story_12468991.jsp
Maoists draw CRPF first blood
- Officer and four others blown up
NARESH JANA
The jeep blown up by the Maoists.
Picture by Samir Mondal
Goaltore (West Midnapore), May 19: The CRPF has suffered its first casualties in Bengal in a Maoist attack in daylight.
Five CRPF personnel, including a deputy commandant who had served in Kashmir and reached Bengal four days ago, were killed in a landmine attack near Lalgarh this morning.
The Maoists blew up a Bolero carrying six CRPF personnel about 15km from Lalgarh in West Midnapore on the last day of a two-day bandh called by the rebels in five states.
The squad, although led by the officer with field experience in Kashmir, appears to have committed the cardinal mistake of returning by the same route after visiting camps in the area. Sources said the time — a little before noon — could have emboldened the group to overlook the drill.
The five CRPF personnel have been identified as deputy commandant Vijay Pal Singh, 40; driver Rakesh Kumar, 32; and constables B.L. Santra, 43; D.K. Samanta, 40; and D. Ramesh, 25. A constable in his mid-thirties, Nabakumar Ghosh, was injured.
This is the first time CRPF personnel have been killed in a rebel strike in the Maoist belt of Bengal. Two CRPF personnel died after joint forces were deployed in Lalgarh in June last year but one fell to sunstroke and the other is suspected to have committed suicide.
Around 11.30 this morning, the CRPF jeep reached a place about 3km from its Kadashole camp when an explosion tossed the vehicle several feet above the ground and hurled the twisted remains about 15 metres away into a field. The blast punched a two-foot-deep crater in the road.
After the blast, Maoist guerrillas fired a few rounds at the vehicle before disappearing into the Chowkishal forest. The shots suggest that the rebels were waiting nearby to detonate the mine with surgical precision.
Today's strike is the biggest blow to security forces posted in the state to combat Maoists since the attack on the Eastern Frontier Rifles camp in Shilda on February 15 this year in which 24 personnel were massacred.
Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, responding to a viewer's question on a television channel, said: "There is no necessity for deployment of the army to tackle the Maoists here."
He stressed on three factors: the operation of the joint forces will continue, development measures will be taken in tribal-dominated areas and awareness will be created among the people against the Maoists.
Deputy commandant Singh and the injured constable were initially taken in an ambulance to Midnapore Medical College and Hospital from where they were referred to Calcutta. A BSF helicopter flew them to the city this evening and they were admitted to a private hospital but Singh, bandaged from top to toe, succumbed to injuries.
"Even last night, the deputy commandant had accompanied me on a raid against Maoists. He had just arrived a few days ago but was learning fast," Manoj Verma, district superintendent of police, said.
Sources said Singh had been visiting the CRPF camps in the Maoist-hit areas to familiarise himself with the personnel and the terrain.
"Today, he (Singh) had gone out in his Bolero from Goaltore to visit the CRPF camps at Ramgarh and Kadashole. He was returning to Goaltore along the same way. It appears that the Maoists saw him go towards Ramgarh and knew he would be returning along the same way. So, the rebels took the opportunity to trigger the explosive," said a police officer.
The Bolero had left Ramgarh for the Kadashole camp around 11.15am and was travelling towards the Kadashole camp along a road lined with dense forest.
"The explosion took place right under the driver. It was very accurately triggered. The improvised explosive device was planted in the road and covered with gravel. So, it was not visible from a distance. We found about 350 metres of electrical wire from the side of the road snaking into the forest," said a police officer.
A motorcyclist who rode up a few minutes later alerted the CRPF camp at Kadashole, about 3km away.