An officer of the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) was injured when a detonator exploded while he was defusing a land mine recovered from near a school in Gadchiroli.
The Communist Party of India (Maoist), celebrating its foundation day on Friday, had put up a red banner on the main road to Kamalapur village in Rennaplli sub-division in front of Bhagvantrao School.
The banner bore the slogan “People’s War Group and NCCI unity day Jindabad by CPI (Maoist).”
Police discovered the landmine near the place where the banner had been put up.
The school, which was hardly 20 feet from the spot, would have been destroyed had the landmine exploded.
The injured officer, Mahadev Mangaruji Waghade, is out of danger, according to a press note issued by the office of the Superintendent of Police, Gadchiroli.
Police have intensified anti-Naxal operations in the area after the incident.
