Ten jawans and a civilian driver, who were returning in a van following an…
2023
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, 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 to find it. 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 soil subsurface, has also not proved successful.
The incident of April 26 in Dantewada happened when the Jawans were
Answer: D. returning from an anti-Maoist operation — ConceptFor a literal-comprehension item, select the completion explicitly stated in the passage. Track the subject, action, and time or direction markers; do…
- A.
confronted by the Maoists
- B.
searching for the Maoists
- C.
going for an anti-Maoist operation
- D.
returning from an anti-Maoist operation
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept
For a literal-comprehension item, select the completion explicitly stated in the passage. Track the subject, action, and time or direction markers; do not replace the text with a merely plausible event.
Application
The opening sentence places the ten jawans and the civilian driver in a van while returning after an anti-Maoist operation. The unfinished final sentence asks what the jawans were doing when the Dantewada incident happened.
Contrast
‘Confronted by the Maoists’ introduces a direct encounter that the passage does not state.
‘Searching for the Maoists’ changes their activity from post-operation travel to an active search.
‘Going for an anti-Maoist operation’ reverses the direction and timing because the operation had already occurred.
Cross-check
Reading the opening and closing sentences together preserves the same subject and time marker: the jawans were returning following the operation.
Result
The passage supports ‘returning from an anti-Maoist operation.’