One person dead, 11 injured in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada after Naxals blow up SUV

Raipur: One person was killed and 11 others were injured after Naxals blew up a sports utility vehicle (SUV) in which they were travelling using an improvised explosive device in Chhattisgarh’s insurgency-hit Dantewada district on Thursday, a police official said. The incident took place around 7.30 am near Ghotiya village under the Malewadhi police station limits, located around 400 km from the state capital Raipur, on an under-construction route, which connects Narayanpur to Dantewada, the district’s Superintendent of Police, Abhishek Pallava, told PTI. The official said they suspect the rebels might have planned to target security forces, but mistakenly attacked the civilian vehicle. Police never use a four-wheeler while moving on that route, he added. The official said the victims were on their way to neighbouring Telangana. The vehicle, a Bolero, came under the impact of the IED blast, causing injuries to all 12 occupants, including a woman. Of them, two were critically injured, while 10 others received minor injuries, the official said. After being alerted, a team of security personnel from a nearby camp rushed to the spot and shifted the injured people to the district hospital. One of the seriously injured persons, identified as Dhan Singh, who hailed from neighbouring Balaghat district in Madhya Pradesh, succumbed to his injuries during treatment at the hospital, the official said. The victims, belonging to Rajanandgaon district (Chhattisgarh) and Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh), were going to Telangana for some personal work, he said.