Raipur, November 29
An officer with the CRPF jungle warfare unit CoBRA was killed while nine commandos were injured after Maoists set off an improvised explosive device blast in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district on Saturday night, officials said. of security.
They said the improvised explosive device blast took place in the Chintalnar forest area of the district around 9 p.m. and the injured personnel were evacuated in an IAF helicopter around midnight.
Assistant Commander Nitin P Bhalerao, 33, succumbed to injuries in the early hours of Sunday.
Nine commandos, including the team leader, second-ranking officer in command, Dinesh Kumar Singh, were injured in the incident, they said.
Seven commandos are being treated at a hospital in Raipur, while two are receiving medical care at a unit hospital in Chintalnar, located in the southern Bastar area of the state, they said.
The Sukma district is located at a distance of about 400 km from here.
The wounded belong to Battalion 206 of the Resolute Action Command Battalion (CoBRA).
A joint team of CoBRA and local police was conducting an area domination exercise when the blast occurred, officials said.
The team was exploring the area for the proposed induction of some new battalions of the Central Reserve Police Force and the establishment of their new camps in this area and it was then that the IED was fired, official sources said.
Five more CRPF battalions are expected to be installed in Chhattisgarh for anti-Maoist tasks after the Union Ministry of the Interior recently gave its approval.
CRPF director general AP Maheshwari, who took a morning flight from Delhi to reach Raipur, laid a wreath and paid tribute to the officer at a force camp here.
“CRPF stands shoulder to shoulder with the family. The sacrifice will not be wasted. We would carry out the mission with more vigor and synergy and we would not allow adversaries to succeed in their cowardly acts, “he said on his Twitter account.
Bhalerao, a resident of Nashik in Maharashtra, was a decorated commando and had been chosen as the best in various combat competitions, a senior officer of the force said.
He joined the CRPF in 2010 and came to CoBRA last year.
He is survived by his mother, wife and a six-year-old daughter, they said.
His remains will be carried by a plane that is expected to land in Nashik tonight, a CRPF spokesman said.
CoBRA was created by the CRPF in 2009 as a special guerrilla combat command unit to carry out anti-Naxal operations and combat insurgents in the Northeast. PTI
