Raipur, June 30 (IANS) A day after 26 security personnel were massacred by Maoists in Chhattisgarh, eight Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers were injured in a blast Wednesday when they were attempting to defuse a landmine near Cherpal village in Bijapur district, police said.
‘A CRPF team spotted a landmine during a routine search operation on Bijapur-Gangloor road. Its disposal experts tried to defuse the mine,’ an officer at the police headquarters here told IANS.
‘The security personnel accidentally stepped on the trigger, leading to the blast,’ he added.
The officer added that Maoists use normal injection syringes which are fitted with the explosive and buried on the road and forested roads. When anyone steps on it, one end of the syringe gets pressed and the circuit is completed, leading to explosion.
All the injured CRPF personnel are being shifted to the district hospital at Bijapur town, some 450 km from here.
Maoists have given a two-day strike call in five states, including Chhattisgarh, beginning Wednesday. The strike has hit normal life in the interiors of Bastar region that covers nearly 40,000 sq km area.
Twenty-six security personnel, including 24 CRPF troopers and an assistant commandant, were killed in a Maoist ambush in the Bastar region Tuesday, officials said.
About a dozen CRPF personnel were also injured in the attack in Narayanpur district.
