Telangana: Pressure mine explodes, injures cow in Kothagudem

Hyderabad: A pressure mine that allegedly belonged to the outlawed Communist Party of India CPI (Maoist) party exploded on Monday in the forests of Pusuguppa in the Cherla Mandal of the district, critically injuring a cow.

When a tribal of Pusuguppa village, Madivi Muddaiah’s cow wandered into the jungle to graze, the incident took place. The injured cow was treated by the Cherla police with assistance from the veterinary hospital staff.

According to Bhadrachalam ASP B Rohith Raj, Cherla police, Kothagudem special party men, and the bomb disposal squad discovered two additional pressure mines at the scene of the event on Tuesday and immediately defused them.

Maoists have been using pressure bombs to target the police over the past year, placing them on the sides of highways in agency areas, on podu farms, adjacent to communities, and in forested areas near the villages where tribal livestock graze. As the bombs detonated accidentally, three cows were killed and another two, and a man were injured.

Adivasis have been afraid to venture into the forest for agricultural labour and to pasture their animals thereafter the string of occurrences.