Naxals kill 25, injure 80 in Chhattisgarh

RAIPUR: At least 25 people were killed and 80 injured, 32 of them seriously, while about 250 people were missing following an attack by some 800 armed naxalites in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh on Monday, the police said.

The maoists brutally killed the villagers — 20 of them were hacked to death with sharp weapons, three were charred to death and two were shot dead — at Errabore relief camp, 550 km from the state capital, police and official sources said. Out of the nearly 250 people who are missing, 23 were kidnapped by the naxalites from the camp, where about 4,000 people had taken shelter, the sources said.

State home minister Ram Vichar Netam, on his way to the area despite bad weather, said security forces were searching for the maoists who carried out the attack. The state was in constant touch with the Centre and a military helicopter has been sought to evacuate the injured, Mr Netam said.

At about 1 am, 800 armed naxalites attacked a CRPF camp at errabore to distract security forces so that they could strike at the government-run relief camp, CRPF sources said. At the same time, another group of armed naxalites raided the relief camp.

The rebels triggered blasts and attacked people with sharp weapons and opened indiscriminate fire, the sources said.

The attack lasted about two hours and when CRPF personnel chased the maoists in a bulletproof vehicle, the naxalites rushed into nearby jungles, taking with them some people from the camp, they said.

Dantewada SP Om Prakash Pal reached the spot and police and the CRPF began search operations in the area. More details would be known after the search party returned.

After the starting of Salwa Judum or peace campaign against the naxalites on June 4 last year, over 300 villagers have been killed by maoists. Because of the threat from left wing extremists, over 50,000 people from about 700 villages of Dantewada district have taken shelter in 17 relief camps run by the state government.