Thirteen policemen, including the officer in charge of Bhandaria police station, were on Saturday killed and two others injured when Maoists triggered a landmine blast near the jungles of Bariganwa in this district.
“The Maoists triggered the blast, killing 12 policemen and the officer in charge of Bhandaria police station, R.B. Choudhary, around 11 am,” superintendent of police Michael S. Raj said.
“Only after a post-mortem can we tell whether they were hit by bullets (too),” he said when asked whether the Maoists fired at the policemen after blowing up their anti-landmine vehicle about 75 km from Garhwa town.
According to eyewitnesses, the vehicle was tossed high into the air by the force of the blast. When some policemen were trying to come out of the twisted vehicle, the rebels opened fire on them from point blank range, sources said.
The Maoists looted weapons from the dead policemen and set fire to the vehicle.