Network coverage for Naxal plan under scanner

Security agencies exploring how landmine activates within 5 minutes

Security agencies probing the Saturday Naxal attack in Darba were exploring the network coverage of mobile service providers that helped rebels to activate powerful mines within few minutes.

Besides five jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), a driver and the medical technical of emergency ambulance service 108 Sanjeevani Express were killed in Darba when Naxalites detonated a powerful land mine and blew up the vehicle. In another attack in Bijapur, rebels blew up a bus and killed 7 polling staff a few minutes before Darba attack.

The preliminary investigation carried by the security agencies suggested that the mines were activated within a short notice and probably a strong communication system was used. The landmine that was detonated in Darba was planted about 10 years ago with rebels, as practice, leaving connecting wire in the forest.

At the time of activation, the operator connects the wire with the battery and detonates it. Bastar, country’s worst Naxal-infested pocket, had been dotted with similar mines. The rebels had planted landmines; leaving the connecting wire that they activate after finalising the ambush plan.

“In Darba, it was hardly five minutes time that rebels used to activate the mine,” one of the officials in the investigation team told Business Standard. The spot was just four kms from the point jawans boarded the vehicle. The fatigued jawans intercepted the ambulance that was returning after dropping a patient. In all 10 jawans boarded the vehicle that the rebels or their aides were watching.

Since the jawans were on board, the rebels decided to ambush the vehicle. The message was communicated to the operator about four kilometres away who immediately activated the mine and blew up the vehicle near Kamanaar. The ambulance had hardly traveled 4 minutes from the point. The security agencies are now working on to explore how the message was communicate to the operator.

“Normally, the operator would not sit near the mine throughout the day,” the official explained. He would have been nearby and rushed to the spot soon after receiving the message. The network coverage in the Darba pocket was poor and had the message passed on through mobile, it would have been a co-incidence and the ill-fate of the jawans.

The official said the network coverage of different mobile service providers in the pocket would also be a part of the investigation. If it was established (network coverage), the agencies would look for the call details to establish how many calls were made at that particular time.

Photofile: darba ambulance 108.jpg: The security personnel inspecting the mangled remains of ambulance.