Forward Bloc supporters at the Dinhata subdivisional hospital in Cooch Behar after they clashed with Trinamul Congress members on Saturday. Eight persons, two from Trinamul, were injured. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti.

Purulia, May 11: Maoists today blew up a Border Security Force patrol vehicle on election duty, killing one jawan in Purulia’s Bandwan area. Seven others who were part of the patrol and the driver of their truck were injured in the landmine blast.

Bandwan is a known Maoist hotbed. In December 2005, CPM district secretariat member Rabindranath Kar and his wife were burnt alive by the rebels. On May 5 this year, suspected Maoists shot dead a CPM leader.

According to the police, blast occurred around 5.30pm when eight BSF jawans of the39th battalion were out on a vigil. They were patrolling the densely forested area between Sirka and Gangamanna, about 15km from the Jharkhand border, on the truck.

The dead jawan was identified as 45-year-old Ali Akbar Sheikh. The injured jawans are B.R. Nehru, Pradip Kumar Singh, B.C. Lakhani, Swarup Singh, Jitendra Singh, Suresh Singh and Anil Singh. The driver, Ashok Mondal, is a resident of the area. They were all taken to Bandwan block hospital.

“Three of the injured jawans are in a critical condition and were shifted to Purulia district hospital tonight,” said Ramprasad Mondal, who was treating the injured to the block hospital.

Home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said: “It is the handiwork of Maoists from Jharkhand. We have contacted our counterparts in Jharkhand and joint raids are being conducted in the area to arrest the culprits.”

He said the government had apprehended that such strikes would occur during the panchayat polls that were held in Purulia today. “That is why we have intensified vigil along the Jharkhand-Bengal border by deploying more forces,” he said.

Inspector general of police, law and order, Raj Kanojia said senior police officials had rushed to the area.