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Deathly laxity

Dantewada or Sukma, CRPF or any other police agency. There are several common strands to the incompetence that has resulted…

Deathly laxity

Representational Image (Photo: Getty Images)

Dantewada or Sukma, CRPF or any other police agency. There are several common strands to the incompetence that has resulted in the Maoists brazenly using improvised explosive devices to blow up vehicles of the security forces, which leaves few in doubt about who rules the roads. The union home minister may send out condolence messages to the families of the policemen killed in the latest of an unending series of such incidents, the state’s chief minister may promise retribution, and both may slam the left-wing extremists as cowards opposed to development. Maybe VIPs will attend the funerals conducted with state-honours.

Yet the killings continue, the cops reduced to such pathetic helplessness as to attribute Sunday’s slaughter to revenge for the gunning down of several Maoists across the state border. Neither political rhetoric nor official alibis serve much purpose ~ those killed cannot be resurrected, and there few indications of the security forces developing effective strategies and tactics to thwart road-mining Maoists.

There is something sick about the way the stories are repeated: the Maoists strike when the squad is returning to base after completing their task and lower their guard. Mines are frequently planted near culverts, where it is relatively easy to deploy IEDs under the “black topping” of recently-built, or re-built roads.

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The Maoists hide in the nearby jungle to trigger the blasts, and then make off with the rifles and other equipment of their victims. All the cops can do by way of response is to launch combing operations, which yield little because the men conducting them, of necessity, have to first try and protect themselves. There are obviously insufficient mine-protected vehicles for cops on every mission ~ on Monday they were using a commonplace SUV ~ and no domestic industrial house or ordnance factory has produced a vehicle strong enough to withstand the impact of an IED.

Debris was seen hanging from treetops on Sunday. Efforts to choke the supply of funds and munitions to Maoists have met with limited success, little control is evident over the industrial explosive so easily available in a region where the mining of minerals is a feature of daily life.

What also stands confirmed is the poor quality of police training. That was admitted by senior officials who said that the men killed in the latest incident had opted to drive back to camp without a road opening party, their familiarity with the area and the road’s black-topping probably caused them to be casual. Is any level of being casual acceptable in a situation almost as hostile as what obtains in the Kashmir Valley or parts of the North-east? These frequent Maoist forays project the police ~ Central or state ~ in very poor light. Of course the inability of the political class to resolve situations that promote extremism/militancy is notorious ~ nationwide.

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