Chhattisgarh: CRPF jawan killed, four injured in IED blast

A CRPF jawan was on Friday killed and four others, including two officers, were injured in an IED blast in Chhattisgarh's Naxal-hit Sukma district.

The incident occurred in the forests near Murliguda village when a patrol party of the 217th battalion of the force was out to provide security to an under-construction road between Murliguda and Banda under Konta police station limits, Sukma Additional Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh told PTI.

While Head Constable Ranga Raghavan succumbed to his splinter injuries later in the day, injured Deputy Commandant Shyam Niwas is critical and his colleague and DC Prabhat Tripathi and two other jawans are stable.

The team ventured out from the Murliguda paramilitary camp for patrolling around 9 AM and the improvised explosive blast occurred soon after when they reached just about 500 m away from the camp.

The personnel inadvertently stepped over a pressure IED hidden beneath the dirt track by the Naxals, the ASP said. The injured personnel who first evacuated to Bhadrachalam were later airlifted to Hyderabad for further treatment, the ASP added.