Two jawans of the CRPF’s elite anti-Maoist force, the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), were killed in an improvised explosive device blast in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district on Sunday.

Sources said the incident took place around 3pm when the security personnel, part of a road-opening party, were advancing from the Silger camp towards the Teklagudam camp. The jawans were killed when their truck struck an IED, allegedly planted by Maoists.

“The personnel of the 201 CoBRA battalion were travelling on a motorcycle and a truck when the blast took place. A jawan who was driving the truck and another jawan (the assistant driver) were killed,” a CRPF official in Delhi said.

The slain jawans are Vishnu R, 35, from Thiruvananthapuram and Shailendra, 29, from Kanpur.

In 2008, the Centre had raised the 10,000-strong CoBRA under the command of the CRPF to counter the Maoists and trained them in Naxalite intelligence techniques and strategy.