Chhattisgarh: Two naxals involved in 2021 Bukintor IED blast arrested

Narayanpur, May 11 (PTI) Three naxals, two of them allegedly involved in the Bukintor blast in 2021 in which five security personnel were killed, were arrested in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district on Wednesday morning, a senior police official said.

The three were spotted in the forest near Hitulvad village when a team of the police’s District Reserve Guard was out on `area domination’ operation, Narayanpur Superintendent of Police (SP) Sadanand Kumar told PTI.

They tried to slip away but were nabbed after a short chase, he said. The arrested rebels were identified as Maniram Darro alias Ranjit, Ramdhar Korram alias Raisingh and Bhagat Korram (40).

Maniram and Ramdhar were allegedly part of the Maoist squad which blew up a bus carrying police personnel near Bukintor village between Kanhargaon and Kadenar using an improvised explosive device (IED) on March 23, 2021. Five jawans were killed and 13 others injured in the incident.

The duo admitted that they had planted multiple IEDs that day but only one exploded. The next day they went to the spot and took out another IED and concealed it in Hitulvad forest,” SP Kumar said.

Police on Wednesday recovered the IED, weighing about 5 kg, a detonator and a five-meter long electric wire from the area from the information they provided, Kumar added.

Bhagat, the other naxal who was arrested, was allegedly involved in damaging an under-construction culvert in the Kademeta-Kadenar area in December 2021, the senior official said.