Ranchi, June 14: A jawan of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was killed in an explosion during an anti-Naxal operation at the Odisha-Jharkhand border on Saturday, police said.
The deceased jawan was identified as Assistant Sub-Inspector Satyban Kumar Singh. He hailed from Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh and belonged to the 134th battalion of the CRPF.
Singh was part of a team that was searching the Saranda forest for explosives robbed by Maoists from near a stone quarry in Sundargarh district of Odisha on May 27, an official was quoted as saying.
They said he sustained injuries on his left leg when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded around 6 am near the K Balang village in Odisha’s Sundergarh district on Saturday.
He was taken to a hospital in Rourkela, where he succumbed to the injuries, officials said.
Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren and Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar paid tribute to the slain security personnel at a wreath-laying ceremony in the headquarters of 133 battalion of CRPF in Ranchi.
Speaking to reporters, Hemant Soren said, “The incident is deeply saddening. We are with the family of the jawan at this time of grief.”
“Large-scale operations have been carried out across Jharkhand and its bordering areas for the last several years and significant successes have also been achieved,” he added.
Gangwar also expressed grief over the incident and termed it painful.
