CISF jawan, 4 others die as Chhattisgarh Naxals blow up bus

Bhopal: A Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) jawan and four civilians were killed on Thursday as Maoists blew up a passenger bus by triggering a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Bacheli in Chhattisgarh’s south Bastar district of Dantewada, four days ahead of the first phase of Assembly polls in the state.

Two other CISF jawans travelling in the ill-fated private mini-bus were also injured. This was the fourth Naxal attack in Bastar in the last 10 days. Incidentally, the attack came a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jagdalpur, headquarters of Bastar, on Friday, to campaign for the BJP before the first phase of voting on November 12.

“Four civilians and a CISF jawan were killed while two other security personnel were injured in the Maoist blast,” said Bastar range inspector general of police Vivek Sinha.

Apart from the mangled remains of the mini-bus at the explosion site, body parts of the victims and groceries could also be seen littered.

“No less than 60 kg of explosives must have been used to make the IED,” sources in the state intelligence bureau said.

Those killed in the blast were identified as CISF head constable D. Mukhopadhyay, bus driver Ramesh Patkar, helpers Roshan Kumar Sahu and Johan Nayak and a truck driver, Sushil Banjare, said Dantewada superintendent of police Abhishek Pallava. The truck driver had taken a lift in the bus, a police official said.

CISF constables — Pathare Satish and Pishal Suresh — were injured in the attack, Mr Pallava said.

The blast took place in a hilly area in Bacheli area when the jawans, belonging to CISF’s 502 battalion, were returning to their camp at Akash Nagar after purchasing ration for their unit from a market, a police officer said.

The private bus, requisitioned for election duty, was allotted to the CISF team deployed in the Bailadila mining area of the National Mining Development Corporation in Dantewada for election duty, he said.

The CISF battalion had recently moved from Kolkata to Bastar for deployment in polling duty.

While four jawans were killed in neighbouring Bijapur district by Maoists on October 30, a local BJP leader was brutally murdered by the rebels in Palnar in Dantewada district two days later.

A Doordarshan cameraman and three cops were killed in an ambush by the rebels in Dantewada district last week.

Naxalites have asked voters to boycott the upcoming state Assembly polls, being held in two phases on November 12 and November 20.

The first phase is to be held in 18 Naxal-affected constituencies of the Bastar region, that falls in the southern part of the central Indian state. The remaining 72 constituencies will go to the polls on November 20 and the votes will be counted on December 11.