http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100404/jsp/frontpage/story_12300933.jsp
Down! All lie flat on road - Caught in Maoist blast, an accountSuspected Maoists set off a landmine explosion near Lalgarh on Saturday, missing a security posse by a whisker and blasting a crater on a road less than 5km from a helipad where home minister P. Chidambaram is scheduled to land on Sunday. Naresh Jana of The Telegraph and Samir Mondal, a photographer, were with the security forces when the landmine was ignited. Jana recounts the close shave The message that reached Lalgarh police at 10.05 this morning was brief but alarming: a group of suspected Maoists had gathered at a place between Bamal and Brindabanpur and were “suspiciously” moving around the spot. Brindabanpur is around 6km from Lalgarh police station where Samir and I had gone around 10am. The caller informed the police that it appeared that the group had planted an improvised explosive device (IED) and were waiting to explode it at an “appropriate time”. As soon as we learnt of this, Samir and I set off towards Brindabanpur in a car. Since the road was deserted, it did not take us long to pass Bamal and reach Brindabanpur. If the landmine had already been planted on that stretch, we could not spot it from the car. Soon, we came across a CRPF truck approaching from the opposite direction. Our car stopped; so did the CRPF. CRPF assistant commandant A.K. Adhikari, who was leading a force of about 25 jawans, climbed out of the truck and approached us. We had met a few times before. The officer said he was on a reconnaissance trip and asked me whether we had heard about the IED that may have been planted nearby. When I said I had but had not seen any on the road, the officer said it was safer to walk towards Bamal rather than travel in vehicles. He instructed his men to get off as well and travel on foot. The jawans broke up into groups of three and, keeping a distance of about four to five feet between them, started walking towards Bamal, all the while scanning both sides of the road as well as the nearby fields and bushes. The group I was part of had walked about 2km and had just passed a freshly dug-up patch by the side of the road when one of the jawans, Ramchandra Sau, cried out: “Sir, I can see a wire!” All of us whirled around and Adhikari shouted: “Down! Everybody lie flat on the road!” Since Samir and I weren’t battle-trained and our reflexes were slow, Adhikari caught our arms and pulled us down. At that instant, there was a huge explosion. A lot of earth and splinters were flung in the air and scattered all around. The time, I noticed, was 10.55am. Then the firing began. >From one side of the road, the Maoists opened fire at us. The jawans retaliated quickly, but choosing their shots selectively and not opening fire at random as the Maoists were doing. >From the other side, another CRPF truck hove into view and I realised reinforcements were heading towards us from Lalgarh. Probably sensing this, the Maoists scaled down the frequency of the firing that soon became sporadic. I realised that they were retreating. After another 10 or 15 minutes, the firing from the Maoist end stopped altogether. The forces waited for sometime and then searched the fields. I got up and ventured towards the spot where the blast had taken place and found a crater about two-and-a-half feet deep and about three feet wide. I realised that the explosion had occurred a few minutes after Adhikari and I had walked past the spot. The distance that the personnel kept between themselves probably saved many lives, though two jawans were injured. The security forces found a wire that stretched to a bush about 250 metres from where the IED had been detonated. Adhikari said that if the truck had been passing when the blast took place, it could have been blown apart. “It was a desperate effort by the Maoists to prove they are still around,” Adhikari said. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
