Ten jawans and a civilian driver, who were returning in a van following an anti-Maoist operation, were killed in a blast caused by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada on April 26. The IED was planted beneath a metalled road. The impact was so forceful that it created a huge crater on the road.

Though this attack, which according to the State Police had been carried out by the proscribed Communist Party of India (Maoist), is under investigation, the larger issues of the use of IEDs and of tackling such devices must be seriously addressed at different levels, the government, industries, the Maoists and the security forces, despite the government's claim that the base of the Maoists has shrunk and violence has decreased. IEDs are among the most potent tools deployed by the Maoists. Even a small formation of the Maoists can cause huge damage to the security forces by using an IED.

Therefore the recent theft of about 7,000 detonators by suspected Maoists from West Singhbhum in Jharkhand is alarming. The technical equipment used by the security forces to detect IEDs has its limitations.

If the quantity of metal in the IED is low or the IED is planted deep under the road, mine detectors may fail. Though hundreds of IEDs are detected and defused every year, the search party could always miss a few due to technical reasons. Ground-penetrating radar, which can detect recent disturbances in the subsurface soil, has also not proved successful.