Shortly after Maoists blew up a vehicle killing 15 jawans of an anti-Maoist police squad and a driver on Wednesday on Dadapur Road in Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra’s Director General of Police Subodh Jaiswal vowed to retaliate.

“We will take required action tactically. We are prepared to give a befitting reply to this attack. Operations are going on in the area to ensure that no further casualties take place,” Jaiswal said at a press conference.

The state’s police chief also denied that there had been intelligence failure.

“It would not be right to term this as an intelligence failure. It is a dastardly attack. We will try our best that such incidents are not repeated,” he said.

He said the personnel killed in the blast were travelling in a private vehicle which had been requisitioned by the police.

On April 11, Maoists triggered a blast near a polling booth in Gadchroli district while voting was underway in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

The IED (improvised explosive device) blast took place around 150 metres from the polling booth where people were standing in queues to cast their votes for the Lok Sabha election. No casualty was reported in the incident.

A day earlier, a CRPF trooper was injured when Maosists denoted an IED at Gatta Jambia village of the same district when a polling party was moving towards polling stations under protection of a police party and CRPF personnel.

Wednesday’s ambush is the worst in Maharashtra since October 8, 2009 when 17 policemen were killed in a Maoist attack at the Laheri police outpost in Gadchiroli. Several others were injured in the attack.

First Published: May 01, 2019 16:33 IST