CRPF DG K Durga Prasad. (Source: Twitter/ANI) CRPF DG K Durga Prasad. (Source: Twitter/ANI)

Four of the the seven CRPF personnel killed in the IED blast in Dantewada on Wednesday were delivering an air cooler for a Belgian Malinois dog that was suffering from a heat stroke, while the other three victims were not even supposed to be in the truck.

According to CRPF DG K Durga Prasad, four unarmed personnel from 230 Battalion left the battalion headquarters in Nareli, Dantewada, at about 2 pm on Wednesday. Dressed in civilian clothes, they were on their way to another camp in Bhusaras Ghati, about 40 km away, where ‘Scout’, a sniffer dog, was ailing. On the way, they were supposed to pick up an air cooler from a CRPF camp in Renganar, about 18 km away, for the dog.

At a bus stand near Nareli, six CRPF personnel — some returning from training, others from leave — also boarded the truck. They were supposed to take a bus, said sources, as Maoists are less likely to target a vehicle carrying villagers.

Also read | Day after Dantewada attack: CRPF DG points to information ‘leak’

Three of these men got down at Renganar, while the rest picked up the cooler and headed for Bhusaras Ghati. A few kilometres ahead on the Dantewada-Sukma road, as their vehicle crossed Mailavada village, the men were killed in the IED blast.

While four men are said to have died in the blast, three were reportedly shot. “All three have gunshot wounds on head and chest. It seems the Maoists shot them after the blast, to make sure they were dead,” said Prasad.

The 60-kg IED was planted under the road through a tunnel. The blast took place 30 metres ahead of a culvert. A black-and-red wire was later found at the spot, stretching 90 metres across the road, along a bund. The Maoists are suspected to have triggered the IED from this spot.

“We suspect that the bomb was placed under the road after digging a tunnel near the culvert. We also believe that it was placed not more than 10 days ago, as the wires are supple and don’t seem to have been buried under the earth for long,” said Prasad.

Also read | IED blast kills 7 CRPF personnel in Dantewada

He said that just 10 days ago, the CRPF had found a nine-feet-long and three-feet-deep tunnel under a similar road in Bijapur. “Here, the tunnel was more than six feet deep,” he said.

CRPF officials suspect that the bomb was actually planted to target security personnel during Shaheed Saptah (observed by Maoists in memory of Bhagat Singh’s hanging on March 23) from March 23 to March 29.

Sources said the men who died were part of a battalion that was deployed in the area in November last year. “The place where the incident took place is not a Maoist stronghold. In the last three years, there has been no incident in that region,” said a CRPF officer.

Prasad said though the force had suffered a setback, its morale was high as it has been largely successful against Maoists in the last one year and had made huge recoveries of IEDs.

The CRPF has 350 Belgian Malinois dogs — over 150 are deployed in Chhattisgarh because of their excellent olfactory and tracking capabilities.

📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App.