The Union home ministry on Monday condemned the Maoist attack in Dantewada in which more than 40 persons, including several special police officers (SPOs), were killed when the bus in which they were travelling was targeted. The Centre, however, made it clear that the Chhattisgarh government was alerted about the possible
Naxal attacks in the state after the Dantewada incident in which 76 CRPF personnel were killed by the Left-wing militants on April 6, 2010.
Condemning the attack, Union home secretary G.K. Pillai said that most of those killed were civilians. The home ministry said the toll could be pretty heavy as the vehicle had the capacity to carry 65 to 70 passengers, both policemen and civilians.
“We have very sketchy details about the incident,” said special secretary (internal security) in the home ministry, U.K. Bansal.
Experts believe that frequent Naxal attacks in Chhattisgarh as well as in other parts of the country exposes the hollowness in the anti-Naxal operations being carried out by the Central, as well as state security forces. The Naxals had on April 6 carried out their deadliest attack killing 76 security personnel in Mukrana forests of Dantewada district. On May 8, seven CRPF jawans were killed when Naxals blew up a bullet-proof vehicle in Bijapur district. The Maoists also killed six villagers, including a sarpanch, near Teregaon in Rajnandgaon district in Chhattisgarh on Sunday and threw their bodies outside the villages.
However, sources in the intelligence agencies believe that Maoists are now targeting civilians by dubbing them “police informers”. Intelligence officials are now probing how naxals are procuring foreign-made weapons like Italian 7.65 pistol, Belgium-made M-20 AKM series pistol, Russian AK-47 pistol and German SLR, sources added.