Dantewada: Sukhram and Vijay, both teachers, were traveling from Dantewada to Sukma. On the bus that the Naxals blew up on Monday in Chhattisgarh. They say the next time they see a policeman board a bus, they will get off it.
The two teachers had boarded the bus at the first stop, Dantewada. The special police officers (SPOs) boarded a little while later midway to Sukma. Sukhram recalls that, "some of them managed to get in, some climbed on the roof of the bus. There were 25 to 30 of them. And then the blast happened."
Asked what he saw when the blast occurred, Sukhram says, "I was blinded by the impact of the blast."
The other teacher, Vijay, says the blast was followed by firing. "We wanted to help people get out of the bus after the blast but we couldn't because of the firing."
The Naxals are believed to have targeted a civilian bus because they had spotted the SPOs boarding it. The SPOs are recruited from among the locals and have emerged as the biggest threat to the Naxals.
But civilians like Sukhram and Vijay would rather want that police personnel not get into civilian buses. "It is a problem for them and for us. If they get into a bus then someone will definitely inform about their presence," says Vijay.