PATNA A 62-year-old man was killed and a minor boy injured when an improvised explosive device (IED), suspected to have been planted by Maoists, and left unattended by the police, went off at Madanpur village of Aurangabad district on Friday morning.
The blast occurred when Ram Charitra Singh Bhokta of Babu Bandh village in Auranabad, about 145 km west of state capital, Patna, was toying with an unidentified article he had picked up from the forest area nearby, at a roadside shop in the vicinity.
Bhokta died on the spot while 16-year-old Ravindra Kumar, who was sitting next to him, sustained injuries. The injured boy was admitted to a local primary health centre (PHC), a police officer said..
Fearing the Maoists, family members of Bhokta quietly cremated his body. However, informed by the village chowkidar, a police team from the Madanpur police station rushed to the village and lodged an FIR against unidentified Maoists.
A Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) was rushed to the blast spot for investigations.
Sources said the police had left the unidentified article lying where it was, after recovering some explosive material from under the road. Maoists had apparently planted the explosives to deter the movement of vehicles of security forces.
{{/usCountry}}Sources said the police had left the unidentified article lying where it was, after recovering some explosive material from under the road. Maoists had apparently planted the explosives to deter the movement of vehicles of security forces.
{{/usCountry}}“Another police team was supposed to defuse the explosive during the day. But before it could reach the spot, the old man (Bhokta), picked it up to end up in fatality”, said an official.
Aurangabad SP Satya Prakash told HT that prima facie, the explosive was planted to target security forces during their patrolling in the region.
Subsequently, security forces were rushed to the spot to find out whether more bombs have been planted underground or in surrounding areas, he added.