Chhattisgarh: Now Maoists design scare crow bomb' to target forces

Bhopal: Security forces on Monday recovered two ‘scarecrow bombs’, improvised explosive devices hidden in an object resembling a human figure, close to a CRPF camp in Kondasabali in Chhattisgarh’s south Bastar district of Dantewada and later defused them.

This was the second time in past one year Maoists used a human dummy connected to IED to target security forces in insurgency-hit Bastar, police officer told this newspaper.

Maoists deployed the IED-connected scarecrow on roadside to target security forces passing through the route particularly after dusk.

Security forces usually mistook it as the scarecrow erected and overlook it, leading them to walk into Maoists’ trap, the police officer said.

The use of ‘scarecrow bomb’ was the latest strategy by Maoists to cause harms to the security forces, he added.

Security forces recovered two such ‘scarecrow bombs’ weighing nearly four kg each near the CRPF camp in Kondasabali and later defused them.

“The helipad built by CRPF was hardly 700 meters from its camp in Kondasabali. The route between the CRPF camp and the helipad has to be sanitized frequently and hence, Maoists planted the ‘scarecrow bombs’ in the route to target security forces”, a spokesman of CRPF at Raipur in Chhattisgarh told this newspaper.

On November 29 last year, five similar ‘scarecrow bombs’ were recovered in Chintagufa jungle in Chhattisgarh’s south Bastar district of Sukma. However, only one of them was found to be connected to IED, while the rest four were mere dummies.