Jamshedpur, Oct. 20: CPI(Maoist) rebels triggered a landmine blast at Kiriburu in the buffer zone of Saranda forests, about 150km from here, this morning — a day after a central team visited the area to take stock of the situation ahead of starting a slew of development projects.
West Singhbhum police said the Maoists had actually targeted a CRPF vehicle that was passing through the area. “The landmine, an IED weighing over 50kg, was planted on the side of the road and was detonated by a wire measuring 400 metres. But it missed the target. No casualty was reported,” said West Singhbhum superintendent of police (SP) Arun Kumar Singh.
The CRPF truck was on its way from Kiriburu to an iron-ore loading point from where COBRA jawans, who had taken part in regular long-range patrolling in the core area of Saranda, were to be picked up and brought back. The vehicle had covered a distance of about 2km when the landmine blast occurred at 7.30am, leaving behind an eight feet deep crater and affecting an area of 14-feet radius.
According to Singh, the wire was drawn along a pipeline and the explosive was planted close to the road. Soon after the explosion, police and paramilitary forces swung into action and began a massive combing operation.
Saranda was a liberated zone for Maoists till this August. The outlawed outfit had established the headquarters of its Eastern Regional Bureau (ERB) in the region and ran more than a dozen training camps in core areas of the forest, including Bitkelsoya, Baliba, Thalkobad, Tirilposi, Bundijora and Ratamati.
However, the ERB headquarters was destroyed and the training camps razed during operation Anaconda from July 31 till September 1 in which about 10,000 CRPF personnel participated. After the successful operation, the Centre focussed its attention on development of Saranda and sent a team.
Commanding officer of CRPF’s 197th Battalion Lalchand Yadav, who is deployed in Saranda, said some rebels were still hiding in the forests. “The landmine blast is the Maoists’ way of expressing anger against the crackdown, which almost drove them away from their liberated zone,” said Yadav.
