Former 'Salwa Judum' member killed by Naxals

Raipur: A former 'Salwa Judum' member was allegedly killed by Naxalites in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district today, police said. Modiam Somlu (50), an ex-member of the erstwhile anti-Naxalite movement Salwa Judum, was fatally attacked by the ultras at Loharpara village in Bijapur early this morning, a district police official told PTI.

Somlu, a native of Pundri village, had gone to Loharpara, located around 400 km from Raipur, to fetch 'sulfi' (a popular drink among tribals prepared from sulfi plants) when a group of armed rebels stormed there. The Naxals pumped bullets into him and also stabbed him with sharp-edged weapons, he said. Police rushed to the spot on getting information about the incident and sent the body for postmortem, he said.

Somlu had earlier served as sarpanch of Pundri. A manhunt has been launched to nab the attackers who escaped into the thick forest after committing the crime, the police official said. Salwa Judum, an anti-Maoist civil militia, was disbanded in 2011 in Chhattisgarh following a Supreme Court order declaring as illegal and unconstitutional the deployment of tribal youth as special police officers in the fight against Maoist insurgency.