Bijapur: Two CoBRA, a jungle warfare wing of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), jawans were injured in an IED blast in Bijapur district, Chhattisgarh, on Thursday morning. As per the sources of the police, the tragedy happened when people of the 229th battalion of the CRPF and the 206th battalion of CoBRA were carrying out anti-Maoist operations in the area.

The IED was also detonated through contact with the earlier security personnel made with the object during their operation. Two of the injured commandos, Mridul Barman and Mohd Ishaq of the 206th CoBRA battalion, received injuries in the blast and were first taken to the Basaguda CRPF camp. They were later taken to Raipur for further treatment. Fortunately, their state is described to be well, and I am told there is no likelihood of them being in critical condition, according to a senior police officer.

This attack is not an isolated one and has happened in the region in the recent past, as has been evidenced. On January 12 this year, a 10-year-old girl and two policemen were injured in Bijapur by a pressure-initiated IED explosion. The previous day, on January 11, one CRPF jawan was injured in another blast in the same district. There have been several linkages made to the Maoist rebellions, though the rebels have gone on attacking security forces and civilians in the area.

A villager was killed while three others sustained injuries in two different IED blasts on Jan 10 in the Orchha area of Narayanpur district. Earlier, a Maoist-planted IED went off in Bijapur on a vehicle carrying police personnel on January 6; the explosion left eight men, including their driver, dead. These frequent attacks show that security forces remain under threat in Maoist-affected regions of Chhattisgarh.

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