A day after a CoBRA jawan was injured in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts by Maoists in Marwa forest of Gumla district, a similar incident occurred on Wednesday early morning killing a villager.
Sources said the villager was accompanying security forces to guide them during a search operation against the Maoists, when he stepped on an IED killing him.
The villager identified as Rameshwar Munda, received critical injuries and was evacuated immediately from the spot, but succumbed to injuries while being taken to the doctor.
Confirming the incident, Gumla SP Hurdeep P Janardhanan said, “The villager who was accompanying the security forces in a search operation against Maoists got injured. He died on the way to the doctor. Police have intensified search operations against the Left Wing Extremists (LWE) activists.”
Police sources said the IEDs were planted by the squad of Maoist Zonal Commander Budheshwar Oraon and Ravindra Ganjhu in the Marwa forests of Gumla.
The LWE plant IEDs in jungles and these often blow up when security forces are on search operations or when villagers go into the jungles to graze their animals.
The Maoists had hidden IED bombs at several places in the Keragani-Marwa forest with the intention of harming the security forces in this area, so that as soon as the police conduct a search operation to nab the Maoists, the security forces have to suffer from the IED blast. But in this act of Maoists, many villagers also lost their lives.
The villagers living nearby often go to the forest to pick dry wood and they fall prey to it.
A day earlier on Tuesday, a Cobra jawan was injured after being hit by a bomb planted by LWE activists in the same area. Seven-year-old Drona, the most celebrated dog of the CRPF died in the line of duty during an anti-Naxal operation in Marwa forest area under Kurumgadh police station in Gumla district on Tuesday morning. His handler, Vishwajeet Kumbhkar, got critically injured in the landmine explosion and was airlifted to Ranchi for treatment.
This is the sixth such incident of a landmine blast within a year in the Marwa jungles. In February this year, a CRPF jawan had lost both his legs in a similar blast while a villager Mahender Mahto also got seriously injured in another IED blast that occurred in the Marwa Karagani jungles under Kurumgadh police station in Gumla.
According to villagers, they have been warned by the Maoists not to enter the jungles as the land mines planted by them might explode claiming their lives or they may get critically injured. As per the message given to the villagers, the Maoists have planted hundreds of landmines in the jungles of Gumla to prevent the entry of security forces.