4 CRPF men killed in Lalgarh blast
PTI
MIDNAPORE, MAY 19
Four CRPF personnel were killed and two others, including a Deputy Commandant, seriously injured in an IED blast triggered by Naxalites at Lalgarh in West Bengal today, the second day of a bandh called by the left wing extremists in five states.
The blast comes a day after Union Home Minister P Chidambaram asked the Naxals to abjure violence and come forward for talks.
Official sources said the CRPF men had set out from their camp at Goaltore market to patrol nearby villages and to visit another camp when the blast took place at Ramgarh in Lalgarh police station area in West Midnapore district at 11.30 am.
“Four CRPF jawans were killed and two were injured in an IED blast set off by Naxals,” M Nageswar Rao, CRPF Inspector General of Police, told PTI.
The deceased have been identified as constables B Santara, D K Samanta, D Ramesh and Rakesh Kumar. Among the injured is CRPF Deputy Commandant B P Singh.
The personnel were travelling through the state highway. “As soon as they crossed a small bridge, the vehicle in the front was blown up,” sources said.
The blast left a five-feet deep crater on the road.
Lalgarh had been a hotbed of Naxalite activities since the last couple of years and a joint CRPF-state police operation was launched in June last year to retake the areas controlled by Maoists there.
The latest attack by Maoists came just two days after they blew up a civilian bus in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh killing at least 35 people. After that incident, Chidambaram had made a fresh offer to hold talks if they “suspend” violence even for just 72 hours but the left wing extremists rejected it.
The vehicle was blown several feet from the road bordered by forests in the blast.
The deputy commandant and another constable, Nabakumar Ghosh, were seriously injured and admitted to the Midnapore Hospital, police sources said.
Photo-journalists who went to the spot, which was cordoned off, scuffled with state police for preventing them from taking photographs.
The police and paramilitary forces have reached the spot and begun search operations.
Another landmine was spotted by villagers on the state highway-9 at Jitusole. The bomb squad has gone to defuse it.
