1 DEAD, 3 JAWANS HURT IN IED BLAST IN CHHATTISGARH

A district reserve guard (DRG) jawan was killed and three others were seriously injured in an IED blast triggered by Maoists in Sukma district of Bastar region on Saturday.

The three injured were airlifted to Raipur for treatment in the afternoon and their condition is said to be serious.

Police said that no arm was missing from the spot after the incident.

As per inspector general ( IG ) of Bastar, Vivekanand Sinha, the incident took place at around 1.45pm at a village under Phulbadgdi police station where a team of jawans had gone for routine combing operation.

“When the team was crossing a village known as Rabdipara (around 500km from the state capital Raipur) , the Maoists triggered an IED, in which four of them were injured. Later, a constable Gyandhar Pradhan died and the rest were rushed to the district hospital,” the IG added.

On being alerted about the incident, reinforcement was rushed to the blast spot and efforts were on evacuate the injured to Sukma town, another senior official said.

The DRG is a special antiNaxal police force deployed in the insurgency-hit districts of the state.

On May 20, seven state police jawans were killed when Maoists allegedly blew up their vehicle with an improvised explosive device (IED) in Dantewada district. The Maoists also looted six automatic rifles of the police personnel after the blast and fled into the jungles.

Earlier in April, security forces had killed eight Maoists, including five women, in a forest in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district.

RAIPUR: THE TEAM OF FOUR JAWANS HAD GONE FOR ROUTINE COMBING OPERATION, WHEN AN IED WENT OFF AND INJURED EVERYONE; A CONSTABLE DIED LATER