Calcutta, Nov. 2: Security sources said today’s blast by suspected Maoists in West Midnapore reflected lax security and patrolling in the area before a VIP visit.

Sources in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) said no sniffer dogs were used in the security operation before the visit by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Union steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan and other VIPs to flag off JSW Bengal Steel. Nor was any bomb detection expert engaged.

Some other lapses cited by the security agencies were:

No senior officer was appointed to oversee night patrol

Police did not check ditches or fields on the route

IB did not build a source network involving villagers.

An officer of the rank of deputy superintendent or higher should have been tasked to check if policemen on night patrol were sleeping in their cars, a West Midnapore police officer said.

“The Special Security Force (SSF) was asked to keep round-the-clock vigil on the stretch of road leading to the plant. But there was no senior officer of DSP rank or above to oversee the night patrol,” the officer said.

Policemen on NH-60 after the blast. Picture by Swarup Mondal

Bomb disposal experts in the CID said the explosive device was probably planted last night. “The Naxalites used a 1,200m wire to detonate it. They planted the explosive and laid the wire neatly over a paddy field. It is clear they needed considerable time for the job, which raises questions about the night vigil,” another officer said.

The police checked the roads but not the ditches or paddy fields on the NH-60 route. A CID officer said: “The blast spot is 25km from the plant site. We checked the area close to the venue, but the areas on either side of the road near Midnapore town weren’t scanned well.”

The SSF, which looks after VIP security, took charge of affairs four days ago but failed to detect the device.

The blast also showed up the failure of the IB, which was supposed to build a source network by involving villagers. But officers hardly visited the villages, it was found.

The explosion occurred around 2.15pm near Midnapore town, barely 15 minutes after Bhattacharjee’s convoy crossed the spot. It went off near the lead pilot car of Paswan’s convoy, injuring six guards.

The IB sources said the chief minister’s convoy was the target. “As the explosive was detonated from 1,200m away, the attackers may have failed to identify the right convoy,” a source said.

The VIP visit to Salboni was announced over a month ago, protesting which the CPI (Maoists) called a strike 10 days back in West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. Surya, the spokesperson for the outfit’s eastern regional bureau, issued a statement calling for armed resistance against the plant. “We treated the message like the others. We should have given it more importance,” an IB officer said.