<p>"All the best...kill the beast" was probably one of the last messages sent over phone by 33-year-old CoBRA officer Nitin Bhalerao who died on Sunday after being injured in an IED blast triggered by Naxalites in the jungles of Chhattisgrah's Sukma district a day earlier.</p>.<p>Bhalerao, who was posted with the 206th CoBRA battalion, sent the message over Whatsapp around noon on Saturday to a batch-mate posted in an another CoBRA unit who, like him, was planning a field operation.</p>.<p>The Commando Battalions for Resolute Action (CoBRA) was raised by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in 2009 as a special guerrilla combat unit for undertaking anti-Naxal operations as well as combating insurgents in the northeast.</p>.<p>The assistant commandant-rank officer succumbed on Sunday to injuries from the improvised explosive device (IED) blast, which took place in the Arbajmeta area of the Chintalnar forests around 9 pm on Saturday.</p>.<p>"He was a daring and talented officer and one of the best in the CoBRA. He volunteered to join the special unit last year after he had a stint with the special duty group that secures the Parliament in Delhi," a senior CRPF officer told PTI as he remembered the commando.</p>.<p>Bhalerao had joined the Chhattisgarh unit in June.</p>.<p>He was a decorated officer as he won combat competitions and participated in all-India police commando duty meets. He was very close to his mother who raised him after he lost his father very early, the officer said.</p>.<p>Bhalerao, who would have celebrated his 34th birthday on December 21, was very fond of his six-year-old daughter Vedangi, he said.</p>.<p>"Bhalerao was a very committed trooper and this was evident from the fact that he joined the CRPF in 2010 as a sub-inspector but he worked hard and cleared exams to be appointed as a gazetted officer in 2018," the officer added.</p>.<p>His last rites will take place on Sunday at his home town in Nashik in Maharashtra.</p>.<p>A total of 10 commandos including Bhalerao were injured in the blast, including the team leader and second-in-command rank officer Dinesh Kumar Singh.</p>.<p>While seven personnel are under treatment at a hospital in Raipur, two are being treated at a field hospital at Chintalnar in Sukma, about 450 kms from the Chhattisgarh capital.</p>.<p>The officer said that all nine are out of danger.</p>.<p>A joint team of the CoBRA and the local police was out for an area domination exercise when the blast took place.</p>.<p>The team was scouting the area for the proposed induction of some new battalions of the CRPF and establishment of new camps when the IED went off, official sources said.</p>.<p>Five fresh CRPF battalions are expected to be inducted in the south Bastar region of Chhattisgarh for anti-naxal duties after the Union home ministry recently gave its approval.</p>
<p>"All the best...kill the beast" was probably one of the last messages sent over phone by 33-year-old CoBRA officer Nitin Bhalerao who died on Sunday after being injured in an IED blast triggered by Naxalites in the jungles of Chhattisgrah's Sukma district a day earlier.</p>.<p>Bhalerao, who was posted with the 206th CoBRA battalion, sent the message over Whatsapp around noon on Saturday to a batch-mate posted in an another CoBRA unit who, like him, was planning a field operation.</p>.<p>The Commando Battalions for Resolute Action (CoBRA) was raised by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in 2009 as a special guerrilla combat unit for undertaking anti-Naxal operations as well as combating insurgents in the northeast.</p>.<p>The assistant commandant-rank officer succumbed on Sunday to injuries from the improvised explosive device (IED) blast, which took place in the Arbajmeta area of the Chintalnar forests around 9 pm on Saturday.</p>.<p>"He was a daring and talented officer and one of the best in the CoBRA. He volunteered to join the special unit last year after he had a stint with the special duty group that secures the Parliament in Delhi," a senior CRPF officer told PTI as he remembered the commando.</p>.<p>Bhalerao had joined the Chhattisgarh unit in June.</p>.<p>He was a decorated officer as he won combat competitions and participated in all-India police commando duty meets. He was very close to his mother who raised him after he lost his father very early, the officer said.</p>.<p>Bhalerao, who would have celebrated his 34th birthday on December 21, was very fond of his six-year-old daughter Vedangi, he said.</p>.<p>"Bhalerao was a very committed trooper and this was evident from the fact that he joined the CRPF in 2010 as a sub-inspector but he worked hard and cleared exams to be appointed as a gazetted officer in 2018," the officer added.</p>.<p>His last rites will take place on Sunday at his home town in Nashik in Maharashtra.</p>.<p>A total of 10 commandos including Bhalerao were injured in the blast, including the team leader and second-in-command rank officer Dinesh Kumar Singh.</p>.<p>While seven personnel are under treatment at a hospital in Raipur, two are being treated at a field hospital at Chintalnar in Sukma, about 450 kms from the Chhattisgarh capital.</p>.<p>The officer said that all nine are out of danger.</p>.<p>A joint team of the CoBRA and the local police was out for an area domination exercise when the blast took place.</p>.<p>The team was scouting the area for the proposed induction of some new battalions of the CRPF and establishment of new camps when the IED went off, official sources said.</p>.<p>Five fresh CRPF battalions are expected to be inducted in the south Bastar region of Chhattisgarh for anti-naxal duties after the Union home ministry recently gave its approval.</p>