A BSF personnel was killed when Naxals detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district on Sunday, a day ahead of the first phase of Assembly elections in the state.
A team of the Border Security Force (BSF) was out on an area domination operation when Naxals blew up the IED in a forest between Kattakal and Gome villages, located around 200 km from here, Kanker Superintendent of Police KL Dhruv told PTI over phone.
"BSF's sub-inspector Mahendra Singh sustained injuries in the explosion," he said.
Reinforcement was rushed to the spot and the injured personnel was being evacuated from the forest, he said, adding that a search operation was underway in the region.
"BSF personnel Mahinder Singh was injured in IED blast in Kanker's Koyali beda. He has been airlifted to Raipur. The situation in the area is normal now. Security forces are conducting search operation in the area," P Sundaraj, DIG, Anti-Naxals Operations, in Raipur, said.
Singh later succumbed to his injuries, ANI reported.
This is the fourth IED blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh in the last 15 days.
Naxalites have called for a boycott of polls in the state and have executed half-a-dozen attacks in the last 15 days, three of them major ones which left 13 people dead, including a cameraperson of national broadcaster Doordarshan who was covering the election campaign.
Two BSF jawans were injured in an IED blast on November 2 in the same area in Kanker district.
On October 27, four Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed and two others injured after Maoists blew up their bullet proof bunker vehicle with an IED in Bijapur district.
On November 8, four civilians and a CISF jawan were killed when Naxals detonated an IED in Dantewada district.
Polling parties are being sent to their destination amid tight security, election authorities said.
The 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly will go to polls in two phases -- on November 12 and 20 -- and the results will be announced on December 11.
Around 1 lakh security personnel have been deployed in Chhattisgarh for smooth conduct of the first phase of polling on November 12, a senior police official said on Saturday.
The first phase of assembly polls will see voting in 18 seats spread over eight Naxal-affected districts that include Bastar, Kanker, Sukma, Bijapur, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Kondagaon and Rajnandgaon.
(With PTI inputs)
