5 CRPF jawans injured in ambush by Maoists

Raipur: Incidents of Maoist violence at several places in Bastar in Chhattisgarh on Monday marred first phase of Assembly polls in the state, even as the insurgency-hit region witnessed an impressive voter turnout of over 60 percent.

While Maoists ambushed a search party of security personnel at Pamed in Bijapur district leaving five CRPF jawans injured, the ultras triggered two improvised explosive device (IED) blasts at Tumakpak in Dantewada district in the region to scare away voters.

Official reports reaching here said the rebels stormed around a dozen villages in Dantewada district and held the local tribals hostage to deny them from exercising their franchise.

Two troopers of Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA), a counterinsurgency of CRPF, and three jawans of CRPF were injured when armed guerrillas ambushed a search party of security personnel in Pamed in south Bastar district of Bijapur, sources in State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) said.

The injured Jawans were evacuated from the encounter site by a chopper and airlifted to Raipur for treatment. The search party was sanitising the area for movement of polling parties when the Maoists attacked them.

Similarly, Maoists triggered two IEDs at Tum-akpak under Dornapal police limits in Dante-wada district to scare away the tribal voters who poured in the local polling booth to vote. However, there were no reports of casualty or injury to anybody in the incident.

Security forces recovered two IEDs weighing 10 kg and 5 kg each, planted at Kodkesa under Kanker district by Maoists to target the cops and polling parties.

However, tribals thron-ged the polling booths in large numbers in their respective areas to cast vote defying Maoist diktat to boycott polls.

Chhattisgarh chief electoral officer (CEO) Subrat Sahu however said barring stray incidents of Maoist violence, the first phase assembly elections in the state had remained “by and large peaceful”.