The CRPF chief on Friday said the recent Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh, in which 9 troops on-board a mine protected vehicle (MPV) were killed, was very much "avoidable" and ruled out abandoning the armoured vehicles in anti-Maoist operations.
CRPF Director General R R Bhatnagar, who came back after visiting the blast site in the Sukma district of the State, said while he would not like to go into the details of the case, he has asked the paramilitary formations in these areas to take "all precautions" and continue their operations.
"This was a very unfortunate incident. It was unavoidable. We are now looking into the circumstances as to how the operation was conducted.Whatever corrective steps have to be taken, will be taken. An inquiry is underway," the DG told PTI.
Bhatnagar said MPVs have "lot of uses" and are an asset in the anti-Naxal operations theatre.
He said, that after the first MPV was blown off by the Naxal triggered improvised explosive device (IED) on the 5-km under-construction road between Kistaram and Palodi on March 13, the men in the second gave a good retaliation to the Naxal squad which was present in the jungles to inflict further casualities on the trapped or injured personnel.
"The second MPV has about 10 bullet shots on its armour. The troops present inside it effectively retaliated the heavy firing initiated by the Maoists after the blast, as they were well protected," he said.
Bhatnagar said the force had no plans to "do away" with these heavy armoured vehicles when he was asked if they were vulnerable in these operations and lead to mass killing of security personnel.
"There are strategies to use an MPV in anti-Naxal operations ... How and when to use them. They are useful for reinforcements and countering an offensive like the recent one. You cannot say they are useless," he said.
The DG added that the rationale and requirements behind using the two MPVs on the fateful day are being looked into as part of a Court of Inquiry (CoI) ordered into the incident. He said he would not like to join issues or get into a blame game as to how the existing intelligence inputs were picked up by the CRPF men on the ground and the visit of the local Superintendent of Police (SP) Abhishek Meena was executed that day.
The Commanding Officer (CO) of CRPFs 212 battalion Prashant Dhar also accompanied the SP and they had crossed the blast site minutes before the explosion.