Maoists triggered two landmine blasts within half-an- hour killing seven
Picture for representational purpose only.
Raipur: The Maosits on Saturday set-off bombs, killing seven poll officials, five CRPF jawans and a civilian in two separate incidents in Chhattisgarh’s conflict zone of Bastar.
The Maoists triggered a landmine, targeting a bus carrying 12 election staff, who were on their way from Kutru to Gudma in south Bastar’s Bijapur district to deposit EVMs, leading to the death of seven poll officials injuring four others.
“Six to seven polling parties were returning to Gudma from Kutru after the April 10 polls. The poll personnel, tired after wa-lking for long, boarded a bus. The Naxals blew up the bus at Kutelnar by triggering a landmine explosion, killing six election staff and injuring four others,” inspector-general of police (Naxal operation) G.P. Singh said.
Officials subsequently confirmed that the death toll had gone up to seven.
Half-an-hour later, Maoists blew up a government ambulance carrying CRPF personnel by triggering a powerful landmine at Kamanar in Darbha valley of south Bastar’s Sukma district, killing five jaw-ans, the driver of the vehicle and injuring five other troopers. A paramedic technician of the ambulance succumbed in a local hospital, the police said.
The jawans, belonging to the 80th battalion of the CRPF, were on the last leg of their road opening operation to pave the way for the return of poll officials from Tongpal in Sukma district to Jagdalpur, the headquarters of Bastar.
The explosion caused close to a five-meter depression on the road and the vehicle split into several pieces under its impact.
"The CRPF jawans got on to a passing-by ambulance, which was targeted by Maoists,” Bastar district SP Ajey Yadav said.
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