5 CRPF personnel injured in IED blast by Naxalites in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur

Five CRPF personnel, including an officer, were injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district on Sunday, officials said.

The incident occurred in the Tarrem police station area around 7 am when a squad of the Central Reserve Police Force's (CRPF's) 153 battalion was out on a de-mining exercise, a police official said.

The squad belonged to the Chinnagelur CRPF camp in the area.

During the demining exercise, carried out to trace IEDs and dispose of them, security personnel spotted a wire connected to the pressure IED. When they were searching for the bomb connected to the wire, it exploded, causing splinter injuries to five personnel, he said.

The troops suffered splinter injuries on the face, eyes and above their abdomen area, a CRPF officer said.

After being provided preliminary treatment, the injured jawans were shifted to the state capital Raipur, about 430 km north from here.

The injured personnel include CRPF Assistant Commandant Vaidya Sanket Devidas, Inspector Sanjay Kumar and constables B Pavan Kalyan, Lochan Mahato and Dhole Rajendra Ashruba.

The force is extensively deployed in Chhattisgarh to undertake anti-Maoist operations.

This attack comes after the September 24 encounter between security forces and Naxal cadres in the jungles of Karkanguda of Sukma district.

The previous day, three Naxalites, including a woman, were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Narayanpur. The gunfight broke out at around 4 pm in the forest of Abhujmaad on the Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra inter-border when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-naxal operation.

Earlier in September, three IEDs were recovered by the security personnel from separate locations in Sukma district.

During a road security operation exercise from two different directions towards its Salatong security camp under Kistaram police station, a team of 217th battalion of the CRPF and its elite unit C-208 CoBRA battalion recovered two tiffin IEDs, weighing 5 and 3 kg each.