BHOPAL, India – A constable was killed and another seriously injured Tuesday (May 22nd) in a Maoist bomb blast near Bijapur district headquarters in Chhattisgarh, The Times of India reported.

Dhan Singh Thakur, a constable of the district force, died on the spot after stepping on a pressure bomb that Maoists had planted near a helipad, triggering a blast which also injured another constable Hemla Dhasru, police said.

Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district have stepped up violence in the last fortnight, targeting people they suspect of collaborating with the police or participating in "Salwa Judum," the anti-Maoist movement.

Naxals, as the Maoists are locally known, recently killed seven Central Industrial Security Force personnel in an ambush, attacked security personnel posted at a minister's house in Kondagaon, and slit the throat of a civilian near Dornapal, the paper said.

Elsewhere, security forces engaged in a gun battle Tuesday with a group of Maoists after encountering them in Povarwel forests of Gadchiroli district, Press Trust of India reported.

One Maoist was killed in the fight and some rebel firearms were recovered, police said.