Raipur, July 13 - A day after Maoists struck thrice in Chhattisgarh, killing at least 29 policeman, including a superintendent of police (SP), a counter terrorism expert Monday said the state police were at the receiving end because they were not following the basics of jungle warfare.

'I do not want to rub salt on wounds after a spate of killings but it hurts me a lot when they (the police) do not follow the basics of jungle warfare,' said Brigadier (retd) B.K. Ponwar, director of Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare College (CTJWC).

CTJWC, based in Kanker district in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region, a Maoist stronghold, has trained over 7,000 cops of various states to 'fight a guerilla like a guerilla'.

'I have always stressed policemen should never ride in vehicles on jungle roads and should always carry de-mining squads and sniffer dogs graduated in detecting improvised explosives device (IED) while going on operations,' he said.

'Policemen are flouting warfare rules over and again.