Woman loses leg in IED blast

Raipur: A 35-year-old woman lost a leg and is fighting for her life after being blown up by a Maoist IED in Bijapur district of Bastar division on Saturday.The victim, Saraswati Oyam, had gone to the forest early in the morning to collect mahua fruits and was returning from a pond after washing utensils when she inadvertently stepped on the IED around 6.30am. The explosion hurled her several metres away.She lay injured near Bodga village in Bhairamgarh region, around 370km from Raipur. Villagers heard the explosions and her screams and ran to her aid. They took her to the nearby Bhairamgarh health centre, where doctors referred her to Jagdalpur, over 100km away.Both her legs were mangled in the explosion, and one of them had to be amputated. She has splinter injuries all over her body.The explosion site is around 40km from where a jawan was injured in an IED blast a day earlier.Maoist IEDs, supposedly meant to target forces, end up killing or maiming civilians in Chhattisgarh. In May last year, two children were killed in an IED blast in the same village, police said. Bijapur and Narayanpur districts are the most heavily mined by Maoists, resulting in frequent explosions and casualties.