The latest victims of "Pagli Didi" were CoBRA jawans Gulab Yadav and Narottam Das on Tuesday evening.
Along with 14 of their colleagues, the duo were returning to the Dumaria base camp after daylong search operations in Sherghati when they were attacked by rebels around 6pm.
The improvised explosive device (IED) was triggered by the Maoists on Imamganj-Dumaria route after the man on the job was asked to let off "Pagli Didi". In no time, a mini bus carrying the 16 CoBRA (Combat Battalion for Resolute Action) was blown off.
Though top Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and police officers refused to make any official comment on "Pagli Didi", the weird code used for the IEDs, highly placed sources said the code had been used by the Maoists for carrying out major operations in Gaya and Aurangabad districts in the past few months.
The sources said the security officers had earlier foiled some of the Maoist attacks in the recent past after the code named "Pagli Didi" was decoded by a team of bomb experts at Institute of IED Management, Talegaon (Pune), last year. The security personnel had heaved a sigh of relief after decoding the weird circuit of the devastating device.
"The code, 'Pagli Didi', had earlier been used in two important operations in Aurangabad district which led to heavy loss of life. One of them led to the death of a station house officer, who fell prey to a powerful landmine explosion under the jurisdiction of Nabinagar police station of that district," a senior police officer engaged in anti-Maoist operations in Bihar said.
The officer on condition of anonymity said "Pagli Didi" had given anxious moments to the security forces engaged in anti-Naxalite operations in south and central Bihar for quite some time. "On Tuesday, the same code proved fatal for the cops who were returning to their base camp after the search operation under the Maoist hit Sherghati sub-division," he added.
A CoBRA jawan, who survived the attack, said the blast was so powerful that it threw the bus over 15ft up in the air. The front portion of the vehicle was badly damaged in the blast.
The IEDs were planted under a culvert between Salaiya and Thakthakwa villages under the jurisdiction of Dumaria police station. The impact of the explosion was felt in a radius of about 5km.
A team of senior police officers comprising additional director-general (law and order) Alok Raj and inspector-general (operations) S.M. Khopde visited the blast site on Wednesday to take stock of the situation and issued necessary instructions to the officers concerned.
On his return from the blast site, Khopde said in Patna while four of the seriously injured jawans were airlifted to Ranchi, one was referred to Patna Medical College and Hospital. Four others were undergoing treatment at Gaya-based Anugrah Narayan Medical College and Hospital and the remaining had been admitted to Dumaria primary health centre, he said.
Additional reporting by Alok Kumar from Gaya
