Day ahead of Chhattisgarh polls, Naxal attack kills BSF jawan in IED blast

The jawans were conducting a search when the Naxals launched an attack.

At least one BSF jawan was killed on Sunday in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast after a Naxal attack at Kanker district in election-bound Chhattisgarh.

A team of the Border Security Force (BSF) was out on an area domination operation when the Naxals attacked and set off the IED in a forest between Kattakal and Gome villages, located around 200 km from here, Kanker Superintendent of Police K L Dhruv told news agency PTI. Sub-inspector Mahendra Singh who had earlier sustained injuries in the explosion succumbed later.

A set of six IEDs were planted in a series and were set off in one go between the villages of Gome and Gattakal in Koyali beda.

Reinforcement was rushed to the spot and the injured personnel was evacuated from the forest, he said. A search operation was conducted in the region.

Meanwhile, in an encounter with security forces, a Maoist was killed and another apprehended in Bijapur district on Saturday. Reportedly, arms and ammunition were also recovered. 

The attacks come in less than a fortnight after two security forces personnel and Doordarshan cameraman was killed in an attack by Naxals in Aranpur in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district.

This is the fourth IED blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh in the last 15 days.

Naxalites have called for a boycott of polls in the state and have executed half-a-dozen attacks in the last 15 days, three of them major ones which left 13 people dead, including a cameraperson of national broadcaster Doordarshan who was covering the election campaign.

Two BSF jawans were injured in an IED blast on November 2 in the same area in Kanker district.

On October 27, four Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed and two others injured after Maoists blew up their bulletproof bunker vehicle with an IED in Bijapur district.

On November 8, four civilians and a CISF jawan were killed when Naxals detonated an IED in Dantewada district.

Polling parties are being sent to their destination amid tight security, election authorities said.

The 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly will go to polls in two phases -- on November 12 and 20 -- and the results will be announced on December 11. The first phase of polls on Monday will cover 18 constituencies of eight Naxal-affected districts that include Bastar, Kanker, Sukma, Bijapur, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Kondagaon and Rajnandgaon. 

with PTI inputs