Three members of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) died after getting injured in an IED explosion in Kanker, Chhattisgarh, officials confirmed on Saturday. The attack occurred in a foresty region that fell within the domain of Chhotebethiya police station, which is near the Narayanpur border.
Police sources further reported that the DRG team was engaged in a search operation in order to find and eliminate improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that were planted earlier by Naxalites. As the operation was being executed, three personnel accidentally touched the explosive device, which caused them an explosion that left them severely injured.
The injured staff was evacuated and urgent medical treatment provided to them. Nevertheless, the three died due to medical treatment, and it was a tragic blow to the security forces.
This is the first reported such a blast in the region since the state government had declared Chhattisgarh Maoist armed atheists free on March 31. The creation has brought the issue of whether a succession of latent dangers in remote forested regions still exist.
Since then, security forces have stepped up the search efforts in the area to see to it that no more IEDs are active and to avoid more casualties. Police are also examining the working guidelines in order to maximize on security measures when conducting anti-Naxal operations.
The incident underscores the continuous dangers that security forces are exposed to when their operations are in insurgency-ridden regions despite the purported better ground conditions.