Two security men killed in Bijapur

Two security personnel were killed and five injured in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast on Monday in Bijapur district, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit on April 14.

More than 30 jawans were travelling in a bus which was blown up by Maoists, special director general (ant-naxal operations ) DM Awasthi said.

“They were travelling from Kutru to Jangla when the bus was targeted. Two jawans of district reserve forces (DRG) were killed and five are seriously injured in the blast,” he said.

Inspector general, Bastar, Vivekanand, who uses only his first name, said the jawans were enroute to Jangala where the PM is scheduled to arrive on April 14.

In another incident on Monday morning, two IED blasts took place in the Mahadev Ghat area, which were followed by an encounter with jawans of the 85 CRPF battalion. “A jawan sustained minor injuries in the blasts... We are sanitising the jungles...” said deputy inspector general (DIG), Bastar, Sundaraj P.

On Sunday, handwritten pamphlets protesting PM Modi’s April visit were recovered by the police in the Mahadev Ghat area.

The PM is scheduled to launch the Centre’s ambitious health protection scheme called Ayushman Bharat from Bijapur and also a railway line from Dalli to Bhanupratapur.

“A total of 12 IAS officers and about a dozen of IPS officers are camping in the district for security arrangements. About 4,000 thousand jawans are in jungles for the combing operations around Bijapur,” the DIG said.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chose the backward district for its campaign launch in poll-bound Chhattisgarh as Bastar is a Congress bastion, which the BJP wants to break. Opposition Congress has termed the PM’s visit a “desperate attempt of Chhattisgarh BJP to hide their failure in other parts of the state”.

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