Suspected Maoist IED unearthed by CRPF in Chhattisgarh

Raipur: A powerful improvised explosive device (IED) weighing 50 kg, suspected to have been planted by insurgents of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), was unearthed by security forces from a road in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district, a police official said here on Monday.

Narayanpur's Additional Superintendent of Police OP Sharma told PTI that the IED was unearthed when the Central Reserve Police Force's (CRPF) 139th battalion was on an anti-Maoist operation on the Narayanpur-Antagarh road under Narayanpur police station limits.

On reaching Bharanda village, around 350 km away from Chhattisgarh's state capital Raipur, CRPF personnel spotted a wire after which they unearthed the IED packed in a steel container, placed three feet beneath the earth, the police official said.

It is suspected that the IED was planted by Maoists to trigger a landmine blast and harm security personnel, the police official said.

Later, a bomb disposal squad neutralised the IED, the police official said.