Maoists detonated a low-intensity landmine on Charla-Pusuguppa road near Charla in Bhadrachalam division as part of “Telangana bandh” called by the CPI (Maoist) on Sunday to protest against the recent “encounter” in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra. No one was injured in the blast.
The blast created a crater on the road surface and damaged a small portion of the road, a vital link on the inter-State border. Barring the “landmine blast”, no other untoward incidents were reported in the district during the bandh, sources said.
The rebels set off the landmine before putting up wall posters in the name of CPI (Maoist) Khammam district committee on the roadside, terming the Gadchiroli encounter “fake.” The rebels, through the posters, alleged that three senior Maoist cadre had been killed in a “fake encounter” by the police in Gadchiroli district on June 18. The wall posters were found strewn on the roadside near the blast site.
