RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh police‘s counter-insurgency force District Reserve Guard (DRG) lost eight constables and a driver when Maoists targeted their vehicle by setting off an IED weighing almost 70kg in Bastar region‘s Bijapur district Monday afternoon.
This was the deadliest Maoist attack since April 2023 when a similar IED explosion claimed the lives of 10 security personnel and their driver.
The slain men were identified as Subarnath Yadav, Somdu Vetti, Budhram Korsa, Sudarhsham Vetti, Duma Madkami, Harish, Pandru Poyam and Baman Sodi. The driver is yet to be named.
The DRG team was ambushed while returning home after a two-day operation in the dense forests of south Abujhmarh in Narayanpur district in which five Maoist insurgents were gunned down and DRG head constable Sannu Karam lost his life. Among the Maoists killed, two were women.
“The DRG men were returning to neighbouring Dantewada district in a Scorpio when the IED blast was triggered near Ambeli-Karkeli villages,” Bastar range IG P Sundarraj said. The impact was such that a chunk of the road hit the windscreen of the following vehicle.
