Dantewada attack: Initial assessment suggests Maoists received signals on DRG jawans’ presence in the van

The events that led to Wednesday’s attack started on April 18, when a convoy of Congress MLA Vikram Mandavi from Bijapur district came under Maoists’ fire. No one was injured in the attack which was carried out on the Gangaloor-Padeda road when the MLA’s convoy was returning to Bijapur city from a visit to a village in Gangaloor tehsil.

“Investigation has revealed that the weapon of the assailant got jammed when they attacked Mandavi; his driver in the meantime managed to speed away from the spot,” a source said.

After this incident, a special operation was launched and DRG personnel came from their headquarters in Dantewada town in civil hired vehicles to Aranpur. “After reaching Aranpur police station on April 24, they parked their vehicles for 48 hours and got on with the operation,” the source said.

Wrecked remains of a vehicle after a blast carried out by Naxalites, in which at least ten police personnel and a driver were killed, in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district, Wednesday, April 26, 2023. (PTI Photo)

An officer said they received information about the presence of armed Maoists near Aranpur and the team immediately swung into action. “On Wednesday morning, there was an exchange of fire between the patrolling team and the Maoists near Nahadi village, around 7 km from Aranpur, following which two suspected Maoists suffered gunshot wounds. They were rounded up and were being brought back to the district headquarters in a convoy,” the source said.

According to a Central intelligence officer, protocol dictates that security forces move forward during an operation only after receiving specific intelligence inputs and sanitisation of the route. Security forces sometimes take the help of Road Opening Party (ROP) to make sure that there is no threat to the convoy. “When they (DRG personnel) were returning, there was no ROP in place and the first vehicle, in which the two suspected Maoists were travelling, crossed the first (IED) point. The second vehicle (a private van) was stopped by the locals on the pretext of asking for some donation for Aamaa festival,” a source said, citing the preliminary assessment report, which was sent to senior officials on Thursday.

In the preliminary assessment, it also came to the fore that the driver, Dhaniram Yadav, had stopped the vehicle just 100 meters before the IED point. “There is a strong possibility that the locals signalled the Maoists that the DRG jawans were present and they were also carrying weapons. As soon as the van reached the point, the blast occurred and the vehicle flew some 50 metres,” the source said.

(Source: Google Maps)

“Minutes after the Maoists set off the IED, they ran towards the van and tried to snatch the weapons. The DRG jawans in the next vehicle opened fire and the Maoists escaped from the spot,” the source said.

In the preliminary assessment, the officers have also mentioned that this incident is a repeat of the 2021 Bukintor attack when an IED blast between Camp Kadenar and Kanhargaon killed five jawans and injured 13 others.