Booby traps, considered to be one of the most effective and ancient war tools against enemy forces, appear to be making a comeback with the banned CPI (Maoist) in the recent times. In the last two years, three major booby traps were uncovered by the security forces in the Mallampeta area under Chintoor mandal, on the sensitive Andhra-Chhattisgarh border.
The reason behind this is to deter the AP Greyhounds from undertaking cross-border operations, from Andhra Pradesh into the Sukma region of Chhattisgarh. The border along the A.P. and Chhattisgarh is around 45 km and the entire region between Chintoor in Alluri Sitarama Raju (ASR) district in A.P. and Sukma in Chhattisgarh is considered to be sensitive, as the Maoist presence in Sukma is considered to be good enough.
After the Maoists were driven out of ASR district, the entire concentration of the LWE (Left Wing Extremism) is around Sukma and the Maoists do not want the elite anti-Naxal force from A.P., the Greyhounds, to make deep forays into the Sukma region.
“The booby traps are being portrayed as a deterrence factor, and this has been intensified in recent times, with the Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh coming close,” said the Superintendent of Police of ASR, Tuhin Sinha.
It is difficult for the Maoists to make a comeback in ASR district, where they had once held considerable sway. But now the focus is on the tri-junction, which is the A.P.-Telangana-Chhattisgarh border, and the Maoist operation is being handled by the ASR-Bhadradri Kothagudem Divisional Committee, led by senior leader K. Sambaiah alias Azad.
Age-old method
Booby traps have been in existence since medieval warfare days, when deep trenches were dug, arrows or shortened spears planted inside the trenches, before covering them with dry leaves or foliage, to conceal the trenches and the dangers that awaited the enemy soldiers, when they stepped on them.
This technique was extensively used in Vietnam, by the Communist rebel forces against the U.S. soldiers, during the Vietnam-U.S.A. conflict from the mid-1950s to mid-1970s.
A number of U.S. soldiers were killed, maimed or fatally wounded, in the jungles of Vietnam.
The booby traps that were detected in October 2021 and on August 20 this year at Mallampeta were of a similar nature. On Sunday, the police found seven such freshly dug trenches, covered with leaves. The trenches had branches of trees, sharpened like spears, planted inside.
As per a senior officer engaged in anti-Maoist operations, the detection was possible due to concrete intelligence inputs, otherwise it would have been difficult for their men to find them in the dense forest. The trenches were found dug within a radius of about 500 metres, to cause the maximum damage.
Such booby traps can be organised or laid easily, as the work can be done by engaging a few innocent tribals. There is no need for explosives or manpower. Just dig them, plant the sharp branches and leave the place. This shows that the Maoists may now be facing shortage of explosives, the expertise to make and plant IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and even committed manpower who would come forward to trigger them with precision, said another officer engaged in the anti-Maoist operations.
