Councillor critical in IED explosion

A councillor was seriously injured when a bomb planted by naxals exploded in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district today, the police said.
V Ashok (35), a councillor from Konta Nagar Panchayat, sustained injuries in the blast occurred at Elarmadgu village under Bhejji police station limits this afternoon, Sukma Superintendent of Police Abhishek Meena told PTI.
Ealrmadgu is located about 30 kms deep inside the forest from Konta, around 500 kms away from here.
Ashok, who lives in Konta, had gone to Elarmadgu to pick his mother who works there at a local anganwadi centre.
"After parking his motorcycle, Ashok was walking towards the anganwadi centre through a dirt track when he inadvertently stepped over the improvised explosive device (IED) connection, hidden in bushes, triggering the blast," Meena said.

He said a police team shifted Ashok, who is critically injured, to Bhadrachalm in Telangana for better treatment.

As per police sources, Ashok is an active worker of the Congress party in the region.
Maoists typically plant IEDs to target security forces deployed in the area. However, in many incidents in the past villagers became collateral victims of such blasts in the Bastar region, Meena said.
In one such incident on January 18 this year, two women and a minor girl were killed while four others were injured in a pressure landmine explosion in Narayanpur district.