Maoists set 7 tractors on fire besides attacking police station

Kothagudem: Tension prevailed after the militants belonging to the banned CPI (Maoist) reportedly carried out a series of attacks in Bijapur of Chhattisgarh State on Sunday night. It is reported that the Maoist allegedly set ablaze seven tractors engaged in Construction PMGSY road in Manganar village near Barsur police station limits. Locals believe that the Maoist East Barsur Committee was responsible for the incident.

Villagers alleged that around 100 to 150 armed Maoists, including women, surrounded the village with heavy, modern weapons around 8 pm on Sunday and set ablaze the tractors parked in front of the local gram panchayat building. They said that Maoist had put up a banner warning the village sarpanch, secretary and contractor Santhosh Patara to stop the road works.

The Villagers claimed that around 11 pm again, a large group of armed Maoists opened fire on 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, he said.

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.