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Maoist rebels blow up bus in India, 5 killed

Deepayan Sinha | @justearthnews | 08 Nov 2018, 12:13 pm Print

Maoist rebels blow up bus in India, 5 killed

In central India's poll-bound Chhattisgarh state, the Maoists rebels stuck in Dantewada region on Thursday, blowing up a bus, killing at least five, including a security personnel, officials said.

This is the second Maoist ambush in the region in ten days. India's state-run TV Doordarshan's cameraperson, covering elections, and two policemen were killed a strike in Dantewada  on Oct 30 last.

The Maoist rebels are active in the region for decades along with vast swathes of central and eastern India as they vowed to overthrow  the Indian state with an armed movement posing the biggest internal security threat to the country.

"At least five persons, including a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel and four civilians, have been killed and two CISF jawans are seriously injured as Maoists triggered an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast on a bus near Bacheli in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh on Thursday afternoon," Chhattisgarh State Intelligence Branch (SIB)'s Superintendent of Police, D Ravishankar, told Just Earth News.

"Four civilians killed in the attack included the bus's driver, conductor/helper and a cleaner," he said.

The attack occurred just a day ahead of election campaigns in Bastar region by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and opposition Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

"The martyred and injured CISF personnel have been deployed to provide security during the forthcoming assembly election in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Dantewada. They were out for some admin work and were returning base when the attack was carried out," Dantewada Superintendent of Police, Abhishek Pallava, said.

"The injured CISF jawans are undergoing treatment in a local hospital."

Chhattisgarh is one of the worst hit Indian states by Maoist violence with the occasional ambush in the region each time claiming lives of security personnel and civilians in scores.