Five policemen killed in Chhattisgarh Maoist attacks

Five security personnel, including two Border Security Force (BSF) troopers, were killed Sunday in two separate attacks by Maoists in Chhattisgarh's restive Bastar region, police said.

The two Border Security Force (BSF) personnel were killed Sunday in a gun battle with Maoists at Koilibera area in Kanker district, some 250 km south of Rapiur, when a search squad of the BSF came under heavy police firing. The BSF claimed to have killed a few Maoists as well but recovered just one body.

"Maoists carried out a flash attack on a squad of the BSF and the troopers retaliated strongly but we lost one head constable and one constable. Four troopers were injured too," a BSF official told IANS. The injured troopers were rushed to a government hospital.

Three state policemen were killed in another incident in Dantewada district when a police vehicle ran over on a landmine planted by Maoists.

"At least three District Force jawans were killed and four others injured when a powerful landmine blast hit a vehicle carrying a squad the Kirandul area," Dantewada police chief Ankit Gardg told IANS over phone.

Efforts were on to take them to a government hospital at Jagdalpur, headquarters of Bastar region, he added.

Chhattisgarh's sprawling 40,000 square km Bastar region, comprising five districts, has been a Maoist hotbed since the late 1980s.