IED blast in Naxal-hit Gadchiroli on poll eve, CRPF personnel injured

According to officials, the blast was triggered in Gatta-Ettapalli area of the district, where the troops of the 191st battalion were on patrol.

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The blast took place when security personnel were out to secure the area on the eve of Lok Sabha polls, officials said.

A day after a BJP MLA and four security personnel were killed in a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada, an IED blast left a CRPF personnel seriously injured on Wednesday in the Naxal-affected Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra. The blast took place when security personnel were combing the area on the eve of Lok Sabha elections.

PTI quoted officials as saying that the blast took place in the Gatta-Ettapalli area of the district on Wednesday evening where the troops of the 191st battalion were on patrol. The CRPF jawan, a sub-officer, suffered injuries to his limb due to the IED blast. He is stated to be in critical condition.

The region will go to polls in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on Thursday. Prima facie, it appears that the IED was fixed to a bicycle that was parked along the road, the official said.

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On Tuesday, minutes before campaigning ended in Bastar for the Lok Sabha polls on April 11, Maoists targeted a convoy in Chhattisgarh, killing BJP’s Dantewada MLA Bhima Mandavi and four others travelling with him.

Maoists attacked the convoy around near Nakulnar, around 25 km from Dantewada, and triggered a powerful IED that destroyed the bullet-proof car Mandavi was travelling in, killing him along with his driver and three security personnel. The blast was so powerful that bodies were thrown as far as 200 metres away from the car.

Sources said that a powerful IED, triggered by a command wire, was used to target Mandavi’s car. which was at the front of the three-vehicle convoy. Those in the other vehicles then exchanged fire as well, but it is unlikely that there were any Maoist injuries or fatalities.

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