Maoists planning Pulwama-style attack on police camps?
   Date :27-May-2023

Maoists planning Pulwama-style attack 
 
 
By Kartik Lokhande
DESPITE suffering huge setbacks in various States, the proscribed Communist Party of India (Maoist) is internally training its cadres to mount attacks on policemen. The recent attack in Chhattisgarh was a grim reminder of this. According to the sources in the security apparatus, some recent details have emerged indicating that Maoists are preparing for a Pulwama-style attack on police camps. On February 14, 2019, as many as 40 personnel of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir when an explosive-laden SUV rammed into the bus they were travelling in. Later, Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack.
Now, according to sources, details have come to light regarding the Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign (TCOC) of Maoists. As per the details, the Maoists are planning to mount ‘directional mines’ tweaked in square box dimension on tractor loaded with gun-powder and leave the vehicle near police camps. As tractors are widely used in rural areas near forests, a tractor near police camp may not arouse much suspicion. Taking advantage of this, the Maoists plan to blast such square box tupe directional mines by using long-range remote. Apart from tractors, they plan to mount the mines on four-wheeler vehicles like Bolero that are a common mode of commute in rural areas. The directional mines can be victim-activated by a tripwire or command detonated. Once triggered, it projects metal fragments in the specific direction. According to sources, the Maoists’ plan appears to be to trigger such blasts of directional mines, spread panic among personnel in the police camp, and then open fire.
Since Nambala Kesavarao alias Basawraj taking over as CPI (Maoist) Secretary, the banned outfit has been focussing on research and development on explosives. In fact, the square box type directional mines for tractors are under development since January 2023. The Technical Department of the Maoists manufactures IEDs, booby traps, claymore mines, directional mines, pressure mines, and land mines. According to sources, the Technical Department Battalion of Maoists is conducting experiments with the mortar manufactured by it to attack security forces camps. The shells of such mortar carry five kgs of explosive material. The plans for use of light artillery should not be taken lightly as they are learned to be having 90 mm and 120 mm size shells, said a source. For a layman’s understanding, the size of Howitzer gun rounds widely used in artillery fire in the world is 155 mm.
The Maoists have been using the mines as well as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) including command-wire, victim-operated, and radio-controlled ones. The tweaked square box type directional mines is being viewed as an addition to their attack plan. Previously, as per the available records, the security forces from forests under Koyalibeda police station area in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh had recovered in June 2015 a powerful directional mine planted by the Maoists. The mine contained around 20 kg of explosives. Sources cited the references from a paper in the proceedings of the Indian History Congress dating back to 2014, stating that the Maoists had learned the use of IEDs from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE from Sri Lanka.