KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, Sept 28: One CRPF jawan was killed and an inspector-ranked officer was injured in IED blasts which took place during an anti-insurgency operation under the Tonto Thana area in West Singhbhum on Thursday afternoon.
The victims who were of the CRPF’s 209 CoBRA battalion came in the range of the IED explosions as they were busy in the operation at a forest stretch between Tumbahaka and Sarjamburu villages in the Kolhan forest division.
They were identified as Bhupendra Kumar (inspector) and Rajesh Kumar (Jawan). They were airlifted to a hospital in Ranchi soon after the blast occurred where Rajesh Kumar later succumbed to injuries in the evening.
Bhupendra Kumar also in the same hospital is struggling for his life.
According to a press statement issued by the West Singhbhum police, the blast took place at about 12.15 pm while the jawans were getting three IEDs detonated that were recovered from a bush.
According to the statement, before falling victim to the explosion, the CRPF jawans had already destroyed two IEDs and 31 Spike holes dug up by the Naxals targeting the security forces.
The CRPF have recovered about 250 spikes and iron rods from the sites where the Naxals had made the arrangements to inflict injury to the security force jawans.
Notably, a large number of Naxals, including top leaders of the outlawed outfit CPI-Maoist have sneaked into the Kolhan forest division since January this year. The police and CRPF are trying to flush the rebels out from the hideouts by carrying out anti-insurgency operations there.
