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Raipur, May 17 (PTI) Striking with impunity, Naxals today blew up a civilian bus in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh killing at least 36 people, including 12 Special Police Officers, the second attack in six weeks. Police said 36 bodies have been recovered. At least 14 were injured, seven of them seriously. The private commercial bus ferrying passengers from Dantewada to Sukma was blown up between Gadiras and Bhusaras near Chingavaram village, about 450 KMs from here with the Naxals detonating Improvised Explosive Device with gelatin sticks planted on the metalled road. The bus, which left Dantewada at 2 P.M. was targeted at 4.45 P.M after the Naxals got to know through their intelligence network that SPOs were on the bus. Some of the SPOs were also said to be travelling on the rooftop of the bus. The passenger bus was completely mangled with its front portion squeezed into a steel ball. Several bodies which were brought out from the bus were mutilated. The bodies of special police officers with INSAS rifles, civilians with their belongings, slippers and clothes were scattered around the site. Police officials at the scene said that some of the bodies were perched on trees. State Police Chief Viswa Ranjan said about 100 SPOs had gone to Dantewada on May 15 for an anti-Naxal operation. Some of them returned by the bus. Under the Standard Operation Procedures, the security personnel have been advised not to use civilian vehicles. CRPF Special Director General Vijay Raman had earlier said that the toll could be 50 seeing the magnitude of the explosion. SPOs are mostly local people recruited to fight the Maoists and have emerged as the biggest threat to them. Strongly condemning the attack, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said the Centre will have to re-look at its strategy deal with the Left Wing extremists. Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said he would urge Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to re-examine the strategy to tackle the Naxal menace, who were targeting innocent civilians. While this is the first such attack on a civilian passenger bus, on April six Dantewada had witnessed the worst-ever massacre of 75 CRPF jawans and one policeman in a Naxal ambush. The Home Ministry called a meeting in Delhi to review the situation. Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said the killing of innocent civilians showed "wanton disregard" for life by Naxals. "This pattern of killing unarmed civilians has been the hallmark of Maoist violence over the years. In the last two days, we have seen that a village sarpanch and five others were killed," Pillai said. .
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