2 jawans dead and five others injured in blast ahead of Modi visit
The rebels then opened indiscriminate fire on the search party.
Bhopal: Two jawans of district reserve group (DRG) were killed and five others injured on Monday when Maoists triggered an improvised explosive device (IED) blast targeting a passenger bus in which they were travelling to Jangela in Chhattisgarh’s south Bastar district of Bijapur where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was scheduled to visit on April 14.
The bus carrying 30 jawans of DRG, a counter-insurgency wing of Chhattisgarh police comprising local tribal youths, was travelling from Kuturu, nearly 35 km from district headquarters town of Bijapur, to Jangla when it was blown up near a bridge close to the forested village of Namaid, police said.
“Two jawans were killed and five others injured in the blast”, director general of police (anti-Naxal operations), D.M. Awasthi said. The front part of the bus got separated from its body under the impact of the explosion, police said.
Earlier in the morning, Maoists detonated two IEDs at Chhinakodepal near Mahadev Ghat in the district targeting a search party comprising personnel of CRPF’s 85th battalion. The rebels then opened indiscriminate fire on the search party.