Maoists attack police camp, set fire to vehicles in Chhattisgarh

Kothagudem: The militants of the outlawed CPI (Maoists) carried out a series of attacks in Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh State. Maoists set fire to seven tractors engaged in construction of a PMGSY road in Manganar village near Barsur police station in the district on Sunday night. The Maoist East Bastar Division Committee was said to […]

Kothagudem: The militants of the outlawed CPI (Maoists) carried out a series of attacks in Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh State. Maoists set fire to seven tractors engaged in construction of a PMGSY road in Manganar village near Barsur police station in the district on Sunday night. The Maoist East Bastar Division Committee was said to be responsible for the incident.

According to villagers, between 100 and 150 armed Maoists, including women, surrounded the village with heavy, modern weapons around 8 pm on Sunday and set fire to the vehicles parked in front of the local gram panchayat building. They put up a banner warning the village sarpanch, secretary and contractor Santhosh Patara to stop the road works.

Later at around 11 pm, a large group of armed naxals opened fire over Darbha police camp under Kutru police station limits in the district. The security forces retaliated by firing at naxals and made them retreat. Four policemen were injured in the incident. Two injured policemen were shifted to Raipur and the two others were being treated in Bijapur District Hospital, officials said.

Bastar IG dismisses allegations of aerial bombing. Meanwhile, Bastar IG Sundarraj P dismissed the allegations made by the Maoist Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee Spokesperson Vikalp against Chattisgarh police of carrying aerial bombing on the forests and villages of South Bastar with the help of drones. Such baseless allegations were a well-planned conspiracy by Maoists to mislead the people in the area.

The local police and security forces working under a democratic system were protecting the life and property of people in the area, he said The IG said that after the formation of Chhattisgarh State more than 1700 innocent villagers, including many women, children and elderly people, were killed in Bastar region by Maoists in the past 22 years. The naxals exploded IEDs more than 1100 times creating terror in the area. Chhattisgarh naxals coming under the influence of outside Maoist leaders like Basavaraju, Sujatha, Ganesh Uike, Ramachandra Reddy and Chandranna have been victimising the local adivasi people. The local Maoists cadres should understand the fact, Sundarraj added.