According to sources in Maharashtra police and central security establishment, a contingent of 48 personnel from the state's elite anti-Naxalite force C-60 and local police had gone on an intelligence-based operation deep in the jungles of Kasalpur in Gadchiroli.
The contingent trekked for hours in the jungle covering over 45km to execute the operation. They did not encounter Maoists through the operation. As they came out of the jungle around 9am, they called for vehicles as they were too tired and there was no threat of Maoists in that area.
The contingent was crammed in a few Tata Sumo cars and the cavalcade headed for Chamurshi police station in the Chamurshi taluk. On the way, the cavalcade crossed a culvert following which there was a patch of kuchcha road. It was here that Maoists had buried the IED. While two cars passed safely, the third was blown up.
Seven jawans sitting inside were killed instantly, while two others are battling for their lives in a Nagpur hospital. IG (Nagpur range) Ravindra Kadam told TOI, "The area where the blast took place is on the periphery of known Naxalite regions. We have not witnessed any incident in this area in the past. That is why the jawans, it seems, took it easy and boarded vehicles."
Sources said a local villager who was around the area when the contingent was passing is suspected to have triggered the blast as he saw them having boarded vehicles.
Sources in the central security establishment said while they sympathized with the condition in which the policemen worked and the tiredness and sheer monotony of the job that leads them to board vehicles, they should have been more careful while negotiating the culvert as it is an established fact that Maoists generally plant IEDs under culverts and loose earth.
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