RAIPUR: In a major attack ahead of the polls, Maoists ambushed a team of Border security Force (BSF) on Thursday, killing an assistant sub inspector and three constables in Kanker district in tribal Bastar region of Chhattisgarh .

The incident took place when a team of BSP personnel was on a routine area domination operation in the forests of Mahala area when the rebels ambushed them and opened indiscriminate fire, leading to a gunbattle.

Kanker additional superintendent of police Kirtan Rathore told TOI that four personnel, an ASI and three constables, were killed in the incident while two others were injured in the attack. All the injured were rushed to a nearby hospital at Pakhanjoor.

Today’s attack is a major incident ahead of the coming Lok sabha polls as Maoist rebels have given a call for boycott of elections. Earlier, Maoists had dropped pamphlets and also put up banners in the remote areas of Bastar (ST) and Kanker (ST) constituencies calling for boycott of elections.

A large contingent of paramilitary forces have been deployed in the Maoist affected constituencies of Bastar and Kanker constituencies for search, combing and area domination exercises to ensure smooth polling on April 11 in Bastar (ST) constituency and in the second phase on April 18 in Kanker (ST) constituency.

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In Video: 4 BSF jawans martyred in Maoist attack in Kanker, Chhattisgarh