RAIPUR: Five CRPF personnel, including an assistant commandant, were injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast triggered by Naxalites on Sunday in Chhattisgarh’s south Bastar area, police said.
The incident occurred in Usur block of Bijapur district while the forces were on a combing operation against the outlaws. The forces have stepped up operations as Union home minister Amit Shah had last month declared in Raipur that the country will be free from the Maoist problem by March 2006.
“A team of CRPF 153 battalion was out on a de-mining exercise when an IED exploded at Tarnem-Gundam area of Bijapur district. The squad was carrying out the task to track down IEDs and defuse them. The troops spotted a wire attached to the pressure IED. As the search for the bomb connected to the wire was on, it exploded causing splinter injuries to five personnel,” a Bijapur police officer said.
The IED blast incident occurred only 350 metres from the CRPF’s Chinnaglur base camp. The troopers immediately took positions but there was no exchange of firing.
The personnel received splinter injuries on the face, eyes and above their abdomen area. After the early treatment in the camp, the jawans were brought to the Bijapur district headquarters and later shifted to Raipur.
Besides CRPF assistant commandant Vaidya Sanket Devidas, the other injured included inspector Sanjay Kumar and three constables B Pawan Kalyan, Lochan Mahto and Dhole Rajendra Ashurba.
“The conditions of all the injured remain stable and out of danger,” the Bijapur police officer said. As the troops are aggressively launching anti-Maoist operations in the conflict zone of Bastar zone, the IEDs remain the easiest weapon for the banned outfit to inflict damage on the security forces, said Brigadier (rtd) B K Ponwar, a guerrilla warfare expert.
Shah declared the deadline on eliminating the left-wing extremists with the revised plan of action aimed at final assault against the rebels with the twin objectives.
First, the efforts were directed to establish rule of law in the Maoist-affected areas, and second, to develop the area that witnessed destruction. Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai had said that the battle against the Maoists would continue till they were wiped out.
So far 157 Maoist cadres have been neutralised by security forces, 663 arrested and 556 surrendered this year since January in the conflict-ridden Bastar zone.