�Raipur: Eight jawans of district reserve guard (DRG), the tribal counterinsurgency wing of the state police, and a civilian driver were on Monday killed when the vehicle in which they were travelling was blown up in a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) blast triggered by Maoists in Bijapur district under Bastar in Chhattisgarh.
The incident took place at around two in the afternoon near Ambeli village under Kutru police station when the jawans were returning in a Scorpio vehicle after joining a counterinsurgency operation in the nearby Abujhmad area.
"Maoists blew up a police vehicle using IED on Bedre-Kutru road in which eight jawans of DRG and a driver were killed", Bastar range inspector general of police P Sunderraj told this newspaper.
The explosion was so powerful that the vehicle hit by the IED blast was blown into pieces and some of the parts were found hanging in a nearby tree at a height of around 25 ft, a senior police officer told this newspaper, unwilling to be quoted.
The blast has also created a crater around 12 ft deep on the road.
All the weapons of the slain jawans were recovered at the blast site and they did not fall into the hands of the ultras, police said.
It is indicated from the impact of the blast that at least 40 kg of explosives might have been used in the IED, police sources said.
This was the first major strike against the security forces by Maoists in the last one and half years.
On April 26, 2023, nine jawans and a civilian driver were killed when the vehicle in which they were travelling was blown up in an IED blast by Maoists in Dantewada district in south Bastar.
Chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai severely condemned the attack on the security forces by Maoists in Bijapur district, calling it ‘an act of cowardice’ by the ultras.
This clearly indicated that Maoists were frustrated as they were losing their ground in Bastar very fast, he said and vowed to end Naxalism in Chhattisgarh soon.
In another development, security forces on Monday recovered another body of Maoist in Abujhmad, taking the death toll of Naxals in the Sunday’s encounter in the area to five.
“Some of the slain Maoists were believed to be senior cadres of platoon number 32 of People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) of Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKZSC)”, police said.
Automatic weapons such as AK 47 and SLR were recovered at the encounter site.
