..What was the hurry Sunday for the SP to rush without clearing landmines? The troopers should have avoided use of vehicles and moved in a V-formation along the jungle road but surprisingly the troops did not carry either mine detection equipment or sniffer dogs,' Ponwar said.

Maoist rebels Sunday killed at least 29 policemen in landmine attacks followed by indiscriminate firing. All three attacks took place in the Manpur belt, some 200 km from here, in the Rajnandgaon district, bordering Maharashtra state.

Ponwar, who has served in Punjab, Nagaland, Tripura and several other insurgency and militancy-hit areas and headed the army's Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School at Vairengte in Mizoram, observed that if one did not follow traffic rules while driving, it could lead to an accident.

'Similarly, if Chhattisgarh police will not follow the basics of jungle warfare, they will continue to meet the same fate as they did on Sunday.'