CRPF trooper killed, another injured in Chhattisgarh

A CRPF trooper was killed and another injured when Maoists triggered a powerful blast targeted at security personnel in a forested area of Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, officials said.

Sub-Inspector Rajesh Kumar Bind was killed when the improvised explosive device (IED) exploded around 7.45 a.m. between Pushwada and Tamilwada when the 206 Cobra Battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force was on a routine operation.

Constable Manik Pinri was injured, CRPF Deputy Inspector General M. Dinakaran told IANS.

"The mortal remains of Rajesh Kumar were taken to the Ambedkar Hopital in Raipur for post-mortem while Pinri was admitted to Balaji Hospital," he said.

The CRPF's 74 Battalion later recovered an IED from the site.

"A team of 150 CRPF personnel was heading towards the forested Tamilwada area following inputs about the hideouts of Maoists. Bind and Manik were tasked to clear hidden landmines. The IED exploded when Bind's leg was caught in a wire connected to the IED. Rajesh's leg was blown off while Manik received splinter injuries," another CRPF official said.

A resident of Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, Bind, 30, joined the CRPF on September 9, 2007. He was inducted into the elite Cobra Battalion in July 2015.

A graduate from Allahabad University, Bind completed his basic training in Cobra in 2008 and had served in Allahabad, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Assam.

Later in the day, Bind's body was sent from Raipur to Lucknow by air and will be further moved by road to his village in Meerganj.

The attack came just a day after Maoists blew up a farmhouse of a BJP MP with IEDs in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district.

In a similar IED blast on March 13 also in Sukma, nine CRPF personnel were killed and nearly 10 seriously injured when Maoists blew up a vehicle carrying troopers of the 212 Battalion of the CRPF.

Two Chhattisgarh policemen were killed and six others injured in a gun battle with the Maoists at Bhejji in Sukma on February 18.

--IANS

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