Jawan killed as Naxalites target polling party in Chhattisgarh’s Bindranawagarh

One Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawan was killed as Naxalites targeted a polling party in Chhattisgarh’s Bindranawagarh area on Friday.

The Naxalites carried out an explosion using an improvised explosive device (IED). The polling party was returning after the conclusion of voting for the second phase of the Chhattisgarh election when the incident took place.

“An IED blast was carried out by the naxals targeting the polling party when they were returning from Bade Gobra polling station. ITBP head constable Joginder Singh died in the blast. The polling party and EVM machine reached Gariaband safely,” Arif Sheikh, Inspector-General of Police for Raipur Range, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

This comes a day after Naxalites triggered two low-intensity IED blasts in Dhamtari region in Chhattisgarh. The blasts took place on the Khallari-Gatapur road in Sihawa when security personnel were out on a de-mining exercise ahead of Friday’s polls. No casualties were reported in the incident. Later, security personnel seized a 5 kg improvised explosive device from the area, a senior police official was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Chhattisgarh voted in the second phase of polling on Friday, with 958 candidates in the fray for 70 assembly seats across 19 districts. The state recorded a voter turnout of 67.34 per cent till 5 pm in phase two of the polling on Friday.