Bijapur (Agency): Naxalites have blown up a vehicle carrying District Reserve Guard (DRG) personnel in Bijapur, Chhattisgarh, a senior police official said. After this blast, a backup team has been sent to the spot. Bastar IG Sundarraj P has confirmed the IED blast.
Sundarraj P said the incident took place near Ambeli village under Kutru police station when the security personnel were returning in their vehicle after an anti-Naxal operation. A police officer said this is the biggest attack by Naxalites on security personnel in the last two years. Earlier on April 26, 2023, a vehicle which was part of a convoy carrying security personnel in Dantewada district was blown up by Naxalites, killing ten policemen and a civilian driver.
Bastar IG said that on Monday, a joint party of security forces was returning after conducting a search operation. “The convoy of soldiers was passing through Kutru road of Bijapur. Then at around 2.15 PM, Naxalites who had gathered near Ambeli Nala of the Kutru police station area blew up a vehicle of the security forces using an IED,” Sundarraj P said.
President Droupadi Murmu expressed her deepest condolences to the bereaved families of the brave soldiers. In a post on X, President Murmu said, “The Naxalite attack on security forces in Bijapur, Chhattisgarh is condemnable. I express my deepest condolences to the bereaved families of the brave soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice for the security of the country. Our country is determined to completely eradicate Naxalism.”
Union Home Minister Amit Shah vowed to eliminate Naxals from the country by March 2026 and asserted that the sacrifice of those killed by the extremists in Chhattisgarh will not go in vain.
“I am deeply saddened by the news of the loss of DRG soldiers in an IED blast in Bijapur (Chhattisgarh). I express my deepest condolences to the families of the brave soldiers. It is impossible to express this grief in words, but I assure you that the sacrifice of our soldiers will not go in vain. We will end Naxalism in India by March 2026,” he said in a post on ‘X’.
Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister Arun Sao expressed grief over the loss of lives. Sao told the news agency ANI, “Information about a cowardly attack by Naxalites has come from Bijapur. This is a cowardly action…as Jawans are working towards eliminating Naxals…they have done this due to desperation and disappointment. This sacrifice of the jawans won’t go in vain.”
This is the third incident of the year 2025 in Chhattisgarh. Earlier, three Naxalites were killed in a Naxal encounter on January 3 in the Gariaband district. After this, five Naxalites were killed in an encounter in Dantewada on January 4. At the same time, Dantewada DRG’s head constable number 33 Sannuram Karam was martyred.
The term improvised explosive device came from the British Army in the 1970s. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) used agricultural fertilizers and bombs made from SEMTEX smuggled from Libya to make highly effective booby trap devices or remote-control bombs. The term IED was coined by the British Army to describe booby traps set up by the IRA during the Northern Ireland conflict. The term IED first came into common use during the United States invasion of Iraq.