RAIPUR: In these parts, where life is always on a trigger, 13-year-old Sukki already feels she is on borrowed time. “How can I save myself from the next blast?” asks the tribal orphan from Sukma, who lost her left leg in a Maoist explosion three weeks ago.
As she was being wheeled out of AIIMS-Raipur on Wednesday, she turned to those around her and innocently asked, “What was my mistake? What wrong have I done? Will I get blown up again?”
Sukki’s questions bring home the chilling reality of life on the trigger of IEDs in Bastar – weapons of terror that don’t choose between a child’s tender feet and a soldier’s boot, a cow’s hoof, or a farmer’s stride.Just four days ago, a woman was killed in an IED blast while collecting tendu leaves in a Bijapur forest.
TOI met Sukki in Raipur and found a child battling her deep trauma with tribal stoicism. “Soon, I can get around with the crutches being provided by the government,” she said, adding, “But are there more of these bombs?”
Sukki and a friend had gone to collect mahua fruits on the morning of May 26 in Bheemapuram village when she stepped on a camouflaged Maoist IED buried just underground. Her friend escaped with minor injuries, but Sukki was badly wounded. Her left leg was shattered, and there were splinter injuries all over.
She fell unconscious and was carried home by villagers. Her aunt, raging at the Maoists, walked 16km into the forest to confront them. As soon as the Maoists learned one of their IEDs had injured a child, they sent their ‘medical team’ to her home.
They insisted on treating her with ‘jadi-booti’ although her wounds were grievous. It was only when she was on death’s door that they relented and allowed her kin to take her to a hospital.
Delirious with pain, the child was carried 10km on a cot to the main road, from where a tractor took her to Chintalnar, another 10km. She was brought to Sukma district headquarters in an ambulance – a 100km journey – the next day.
By then, word had reached Raipur that a child was grievously injured in a Maoist blast. Chhattisgarh deputy CM Vijay Sharma, who is also the home minister, had her brought to AIIMS-Raipur, a further 430km journey, where a team of doctors saved her life. Her left leg couldn’t be saved.
Sukki will be provided every help under the government’s rehabilitation policy for victims, as has been done for several people earlier, the deputy CM said. “The government takes full responsibility for their care and treatment. We are trying to find advanced IED-detection equipment and to strengthen human intelligence so that no villager, child, or jawan falls victim to such blasts,” Sharma told TOI.
Sukki’s relative Ashok Gandami, the only one who could speak Hindi, told TOI: “No villager dares say no to Maoists even when we lose our livestock and our children get killed by IED blasts. Usually, Maoists inform villagers about the location of IEDs they have planted, but not always. Every time something like this happens, locals rage in futile anger and then force themselves to calm down because of fear.”
In the past six months, four civilians have been killed and six injured in Maoist IED blasts in Bastar. Two securitymen were also killed and 26 wounded in 24 blasts. More than 58 jawans have died in IED blasts in the past five years, and livestock frequently die.
Maoist IEDs get triggered even by the gentle weight of children and goats, posing the biggest challenge for Chhattisgarh security forces, said an officer.
Bastar range IG P Sundarraj told TOI, “Targeting security forces through IEDs is one of the oldest tactics of the banned CPI(Maoist) outfit. Countless precious lives have been lost, both among security personnel and innocent civilians. The loss of limbs and eyes in such explosions causes unimaginable lifelong trauma to survivors of IED blasts.”
He said police are taking effective action to detect and defuse IEDs as well as to block the supply chain of explosive materials.
Brigadier Basant Ponwar (retd), a counter-insurgency specialist and former chief of Jungle Warfare College, Kanker, suggests the use of drones and sniffer dogs to detect IEDs planted 20-30 inches below the surface.
“The situation is much better now than earlier when sniffer dogs didn’t know how to detect gunpowder. The first batch of sniffer dogs detected more than 550 IEDs in their lifetime, which means if one IED can kill five people, the recovery of 550 has saved hundreds of lives,” Brigadier Ponwar (retd) said.
A 100gm ‘jugaad’ IED, made out of a normal steel box, rigged with easily available explosives, and planted 2-3 inches below the surface is enough to kill people and cause lifetime damage, the soldier said. “Such IEDs are strewn across Bastar,” he added, indicating the enormity of the risk to civilians.
Maoists use two kinds of explosive devices – ‘command IEDs’ that need to be manually triggered, and ‘pressure IEDs’ that explode when someone steps on it. Such IEDs can be active for 50 years, he warned.
“The best way to detect IEDs is using sniffer dogs extensively on roads and tracks frequented by police and security forces. In 96% of cases, dogs can sniff out the bomb and sit on the spot, leaving it to the bomb disposal squad to defuse it. Locals should be asked to inform authorities of any unusual digging in their region. It will save their children,” Ponwar said.