Smruti D

In September 2019, security forces deployed in the anti-Naxal combat grid launched a massive operation to search and defuse Improvised Explosive Device (IEDs). This operation was undertaken because in the last three years more than 260 troops had been killed or injured due to IED blasts.

In the recent past, the attackers have been relying heavily on IEDs against the troops in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) areas and Kashmir. IEDs are not only easily accessible but they make up for the lack of manpower. The nature of these devices is lethal. They are either buried under the roads, or hung on trees or just simply put behind posters and pamphlets.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), India’s largest paramilitary force, are at the forefront of fighting LWE. Although they travel in Mine-Protected Vehicles (MPVs), the landmine blasts destroy the vehicles and kill security personnel. In 2011, the then director general of CRPF, K. Vijaykumar called the MPVs “coffin on wheels” but also appreciated them for being an effective means of transport and a repellent against ballistic missiles. MPVs are produced to withstand ‘pressure’ IEDs that generally have 5-7 kg of explosives. The destructive explosions are stuffed with ‘trigger’ IEDs that have at least 20-30 kg of explosives.

In September 2019, 20 kg of IED, which was planted under a road near a police station, was recovered and the blast averted. In April 2020, a part of a bridge was damaged in an IED blast in Sukma. The same month, amid the lockdown, Maoists in Bastar were reported to have laid out IED under the road. When the police received the information from the villagers, District Reserve Guards (DRG) traced the narrow tunnel beneath the tar road. The IED was planned in order to single out vehicles of police and the CRPF at a time when no other means of transport was allowed to move.

After repeated incidents of violence against them, the CRPF have started taking measures to avert casualties. In March 2019, post-February 14 Pulwama terror attack, CRPF DG R.R. Bhatnagar had said that they were procuring a new fleet of 30-seater MPVs in order to armour plate them and also enhance the number of Bomb Detection Disposal Squads (BDDS) for anti-terror duties. The CRPF also increased seats at their Pune-based Institute of IED Management school in order to train more personnel in detection and disarming of such bombs.

Similarly, in March 2020, over a dozen helicop