Gadchiroli: In a bid to keep people away from voting in the Lok Sabha elections, Naxals triggered an IED blast near a polling booth in Ettapalli in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.
Fortunately no casualties have been reported from the bomb site. Voting was underway when the blast occurred. Gadchiroli is among the first seven seats were polling is underway during the first phase of elections in Maharashtra.
In a separate incident a CRPF soldier on polling duty was injured critically when Naxals attacked a CRPF convoy of the 191 battalion in Gatta area of Ettapalli.
Naxals which hold a militant communist ideology have long been fighting the Indian state and have been behind the deaths of scores of security personnel and innocent civilians. Their strategy is to stop people from taking part in the democratic process.
They have been actively trying to block development reaching villages so as to recruit more innocent villagers to their deadly ideology.
On April 9, a BJP MLA and four security personnel were killed when communist terrorists triggered an IED blast and attacked the convoy in Chhattisgarh’ Dantewada district. This area falls under Bastar constituency, which have been battling the menace of Naxalism for a long time.
