The murders of villagers continue unabated in Chhattisgarh’s Naxal affected Bastar region with yet another villager being murdered in Bijapur — a fifth murder in the district in seven days. Till now at least 65 villagers have been murdered this year in the region. In a related development, a Maoist was killed in an encounter with forces and two jawans suffered minor injuries in an IED blast in Bijapur.
The murder took place around 10 pm in Somanpalli, about 50 kilometers away from Bijapur headquarters towards Maharashtra. The village is inaccessible by road. The deceased Kudiyam Mado, 35, was dragged out of his home in front of his wife and his throat was slit.
The national park area committee members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) claimed the murder terming him as a police ‘Mukhbir’ (informer), the most common reason Maoists give for killing villagers. Police sources said Mado used to attend BJP meetings. Within seven days Maoist have killed two women and two former Sarpanch including a BJP leader terming all of them as informers.
In a related development a Maoist was killed in an encounter with forces o on Wednesday. The District Reserve Guard (DRG) received information on the presence of a divisional committee member and platoon commander of Maoists along with 30 to 40 Maoists hiding in forest around Munga village approximately 16 kilometers south east from Bijapur headquarters.
A team of DRG jawans left for Munga jungle of Gangaloor police station. The spot is 8 kilometers away from Palnar camp of CRPF. Additional Superintendent of Police, Bijapur, Chandrakant Gavarna said, “While on the way two jawans suffered minor injuries in an IED blast including one who suffered a splinter injury… They faced indiscriminate firing from Maoists and they fired back. After the firing stopped search operations were conducted and a Maoist dressed in uniform (of People’s Liberation Guerilla Army) was found dead. His identification is being done.” During search operations, forces found a 9 mm pistol, an IED, six remote switches for IEDs.
