Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Rajendra Singh was martyred in a blast triggered by Maoist terrorists (Naxalites) near Sonpur in Narayanpur district of Chattisgarh. Head constable Mahesh Bodro was also injured in that blast while another explosion at Chotedonger has seriously injured constable Soyam Bheema.
Sundarraj P, Inspector-General of Police (Bastar range) said that the blasts occurred when a team from the 53rd battalion of ITBP was giving security for road construction workers inside the Naxal-plagued thick jungles. It happened around 8.30 am between the villages of Sonpur and Dhondaribeda. Security personnel was cordoning off a jungle patch when they came in contact with the pressure improvised explosive device (IED).
Pressure IEDs are ‘homemade’ devices that detonate automatically without human intervention. They are connected to ‘initiators’ like tripwires that activate the triggering mechanism when a certain amount of weight is placed on them. Explosions create a high-pressure blast that sends shrapnel flying and lifts people off their feet, killing or maiming them seriously.
ASI Rajendra Singh was killed in the first explosion that took place near Dhondaribeda under the Sonpur Police Station limits. The martyr hailed from Tehri Garhwal district in Uttarakhand. Rajendra Singh’s mortal remains would be sent to his hometown after the last salutes are held in Narayanpur. Mahesh, the injured soldier is from Maharashtra.
Around 2.30 in the afternoon, Naxals triggered another pressure IED in the Chotedonger police limits. It seriously injured constable Soyam Bheema of the Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF), after he came in contact with it. He was part of a road opening party that was patrolling the area.
Both Mahesh and Soyam had to be airlifted to the state capital Raipur for better medical treatment. Security personnel and police are combing the area to locate and defuse other explosives that the Maoists might have planted in the tribal areas in and around the Bastar region.
