“It could have been me,” the thought of death refuses to leave a survivor in the Dantewada Naxal attack which claimed 11 lives on Wednesday.
A civilian, Yuvraj was driving his Scorpio with 8 District Reserve Guards (DRG) and an injured suspected Naxal on board. His vehicle was the second in a convoy of three– the first was Toofan and the other one was a pick-up van which blew up.
The pick-up was the last vehicle in the convoy but it overtook Yuvraj’s Scorpio one kilometre ahead of Arhanpur police station. Minutes later, the pick-up van blew up in pieces.
“I had gone numb, the vehicle in front of me lifted off the ground as if in slow motion and then just blew into pieces,” Yuvraj told CNN-News18.
Recalling the timing of the IED blast, he said, “The Aam Pandum festival was being celebrated and villagers had put up wooden structures… I drove over one such structure and a piece of wood got stuck in the vehicle… I slowed down and the pickup vehicle behind me overtook… I was having a sip of water when the pickup vehicle exploded.”
He suspects that his vehicle was the real target since the injured Naxal suspect was in his SUV.
“They started firing after the explosion. I could hear it from one side of the road…and a burst of fire from the other… But slowly the firing sound appeared to go further and further…we were not in range of their fire,” said Yuvraj, who has been driving DRG in Arhanpur for the past one year.
Son of a cop himself, Yuvraj held his nerve after the initial shock. A video recorded by him as the encounter with Naxal was on, has now gone viral. It could have evidentiary value for the local police and NIA if it takes over the case.
The civilian driver then drove to the Arhanpur police station to alert police personnel about the incident and also stop them from rushing in unprepared.
In the past, Naxals have launched a second attack when reinforcement comes in after the first ambush.
“After the vehicle exploded, the ASI in my car told me to quickly open the door… They jumped out and started firing, I hid below the car… Later, he told me to drive to the police station. When I reached there, two teams were already on their way to the spot… I told them what had happened and what to expect,” Yuvraj said.
Yuvraj is back with his family now. But he can’t take his mind off the civilian driver and 10 DRG personnel who died in the attack.
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