Three CRPF men injured in IED blast

Raipur, Apr 18: Three Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, including an officer, were today injured in an IED blast in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district.

The incident occurred between Chintagufa-Burkapal at around 9 AM when a road opening party (ROP) of 74th battalion of CRPF was carrying out its task under Chintagufa police station limits, Sukma Additional Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh told PTI.

Inspector Ravi Singh and a constable S Babu was among the injured. Constable Arjun Ram was critically injured in the blast, the ASP said. The ROP party had set out for the operation from Chintagufa towards Burkapal.

When it reached around 2 kms away from Chintagufa, security forces inadvertently stepped up over a pressure IED laid by Naxals, triggering the blast leaving three of them injured, Singh said.

The injured were admitted to a local CRPF field hospital from where they will be airlifted to Raipur for medical care, he added. Extra forces have been rushed to the area and intense search operation has been launched to track down the ultras, the officer said.

Sukma is one of the worst Maoist violence affected districts of the state in Bastar region.

PTI