Raipur: Four CRPF personnel were killed on Monday when their vehicle was blown up in a landmine blast in Chhattisgarh`s Maoist stronghold of Bastar. President Pratibha Patil and the top brass of the state were at the Chitrakote waterfall, 27 km away from the blast site, at that time.
The deputy commandant of the 41st battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force, Diwakar Mahapatra, was among those killed when his Bolero SUV was blasted near the Mardum area, 340 km from here. Three other people, admitted to a Jagdalpur hospital, are said to be in a critical condition.
"Insurgents blew up a Bolero vehicle at about 12 noon in a forested area near Mardum in Bastar. The driver and a CRPF deputy commandant were killed on the spot and two succumbed to their injuries in the hospital," Girdhari Nayak, chief of the state`s anti-Maoist operations, said.
Reinforcements were sent to the thickly forested blast site.
Insurgents chose to trigger the blast the day the president was in Bastar "to show how strong they are in Chhattisgarh", said a police official.