7 jawans in an attempt to save a sniffer dog, lost their lives in the landmine blast in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district.

The dog named ‘Scout’, a Belgian Malinois, has been part of several anti-Maoist operations in the Red zone. The dog is suffering from heatstroke. Four Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel had arranged the cooler for the dog and is providing all sorts of medical facilities.

‘Scout’ detects explosives and even withstand intense heat, which they are not used to. To ensure sniffers don’t get s whiff, the rebels are using new methods like covering explosives with cow dung. The force is further finding new techniques to train the dogs.

Taking all the precautions against the ultras, four CRPF personnel, including the driver, were traveling from their camp in Nareli to Renganar. Sources said that, the information was leaked somehow.

The vehicle was stopped at the Bacheli bus stand, where six other CRPF personnel were waiting for a civil bus. Three of them got down at Renganer to collect the cooler.

According to senior CRPF officers, this was not planned and could have been easily avoided to ensure secrecy. "It's possible that somebody spotted them and realised that they were not civilians," said an officer.

Speaking about the possibility of any leakage of information, K Durga Prasad, Director General, CRPF, said, “No one was supposed to know this. But someone got to know about their movement and passed on the information.”

The officials suspect that vehicle might have been spotted, while leaving the Renganar camp, from where the cooler was collected or at the market place, where they stopped to pick up other troops. Sources said, the IED was planted by the Maoists at least 7-8 days, before the vehicle was attacked.

“On the day of the blast, they definitely had specific information about the movement and they targeted the vehicle,” said CRPF officer.

Three jawans after being shot by the maoists, were died on the spot. The red zone travel is always hazardous, even after taking enough safety measures.

“There was time when we started taking public transport which had its own risk. Maoists started threatening bus drivers and we had to stop the practice,” the officer said.

It is suspected that the rebels dug a fox-hole tunnel from near a culvert to plant almost 40-50kg of explosive underneath the road.

"Huge explosives could have been used. The vehicle split into three pieces after the blast and this is not a job of one person but an entire team of Naxal 'dalam' armed with weapons like AK-47s," said Prasad, the CRPF chief who visited the site.

CRPF investigators said that, the explosive was triggered from 94-metres away by joining wires as soon as the unmarked vehicle went over it.

“We have sent the electric wire used to detonate the explosives for forensic tests to understand when was it laid,” he said.

Meanwhile, the security forces are using innovative techniques, being deployed by Maoists, to plant and conceal deadly IEDs in these areas and they are going deeper inside to plant explosives beneath normal-looking roads and travel routes.

The force, to combat the IED threat, has set up a specialized bomb disposal squad  that is often pressed into action, whenever such explosives are detected.

By Phani Ch