Two persons were injured after Naxalites blew up their vehicle using an improvised explosive device (IED) in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district on Tuesday, a police official said.
The incident took place near Rajpenta village between Basaguda and Tarrem villages around 9 am when the two victims were heading towards Tarrem in a multi-utility vehicle (MUV), the official told PTI.
The vehicle was mangled due to the impact of the blast, he said.
The injured persons were identified as Mohammed Iqbal Ansari, the vehicle's owner, and Balram Pradhan, a motor mechanic, he said.
As per preliminary information, Ansari was taking Pradhan along with him to fix his truck that had stopped near Tarrem due to some technical fault, he said.
also read
- Chhattisgarh Naxal attack: CRPF DG reaches state to review ops, CM Vishnu Deo Sai leaves for Bijapur
- Mahadev app promoter Chandrakar arrested in Dubai, to be extradited to India soon
- Toll in biggest Naxal encounter in Chhattisgarh reaches 31 as 3 more ultras found dead
- Chhattisgarh Narayanpur-Dantewada Maoist encounter: Recent anti-Naxal operations in Bastar that killed left extremists
After being alerted about the blast, a police team rushed to the spot, located around 450 km from the state capital Raipur, and admitted the injured persons to a local hospital, he said.
The police suspect that the rebels might have planned to target security forces, but mistakenly attacked the civilian vehicle.