Red terror strikes on National Highway

Red terror struck on the busiest National Highway (NH) connecting Bastar with rest of Chhattisgarh as Naxalites blew up a police vehicle near Kondagaon critically injuring five policemen Saturday afternoon.

The policemen were escorting undertrials who were brought to Kondagaon from Jagdalpur central jail for attending hearing in the court of law. The incident took place at around 2.30 pm when the team police van was returning to Jagdalpur with the undertrials. The rebels detonated a powerful landmine near Zoba nullah on the NH-30 (formerly NH-43) that blew up the vehicle. All the 25 people on board including 19 undertrials and six policemen were injured in the incident. The condition of policemen was reported to be critical.

“Since the incident had taken place (on the NH), it was certainly lapse on the part of security agency,” Kondagaon Superintendent of Police Prashant Agrawal told Business Standard. The vehicular movement was restored soon as only one lane was damaged in the blast, he added.

The powerful landmine blast on the NH that connects Raipur with Bastar and Chhattisgarh with Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh had shunned the security agencies. “Naxalites might have been working on the operation for a long time before finally striking today,” an intelligence wing official said.

What had perplexed the authorities was the dare act of Naxalites to plant landmine on the NH that had traffic flow around the clock. “This also points finger on the poor patrolling on NH and intelligence network of police in the Kondagaon area,” the intelligence official said. This is the only road that connects Chhattisgarh’s state capital with the Southern parts of the state that has been infested with the activities of the red army. The terror strike on the NH had unleashed of reign of terror among the transporters plying their vehicles on the route.