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Nagpur/Gadchiroli: Two cops were seriously injured when an Improvised Electronic Device (IED) blew off the place where they were engaged in anti-Maoist operation in Pakanbhatti area of Gadchiroli near Korchi on Monday. The injured policemen have been identified as Assistant police inspector Atul Tawade and assistant sub inspector Rajesh Chawar. Both were later brought to Nagpur for treatment in a chopper.
Sources from Gadchiroli said Tawade and Chawar were riddled with splinters after a pressure bomb kept wrapped in a red banner went off at 5.30am on Monday. The banner, put up to appeal masses to join hands for a strong resistance against government on International Women’s Day on March 8, was strategically placed near the roadside on the main Korchi-Kurkehda Road.
Tawade and Chawar were engaged in removing the banner when the bomb went off leaving the cops stunned. Despite being injured, the cops ensured alerting their post which is located around four kilometers from the blast spot.
Gadchiroli DIG Ankush Shinde said the cops had gone to dismantle the banner after receiving a tip-off. “We are now trying to analyse the situation and strategy which the outlawed organisation might have adopted,” he said.
In an earlier incident at Etapalli tehsili, C-60 jawan Gonju Mattami was injured following an attack on him by the Maoist action team. The jawan had gone to a weekly market near Jambia Gatta where he was suddenly surrounded by red guerillas in civil attire who fled after stabbing him.
