M A I N   N E W S

Naxalites kill 15 villagers in Chhattisgarh
Tribune News Service & PTI

Raipur, April 29
Naxalites today killed 15 of the 52 villagers they had abducted last Tuesday and released 37 others in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.

“We have recovered 13 bodies from near the Manikonta village of Erroabore police station, about 550 km from the state capital,” Dornapal police station sources said on the phone. The outlawed Maoists had killed two persons yesterday.

“The released villagers are in a state of shock and are not able to tell where they were and how they were treated,” the sources said.

Senior officials have rushed to the spot as Chief Minister Raman Singh and many of his ministers and top officials are in the district headquarters in Dantewada in connection with a meeting of the Bastar Development Authority.

About 60 villagers, who are staying in Dornapal relief camps, had gone to Manikonta village to look after their belongings on April 25.

The Maoists, who were present in the village, surrounded them and assaulted them.

About three men and five women escaped and ran to nearby jungles and reached the Dornapal relief camp and then informed the police.

These villagers were staying in government relief camps and were participating in a peace campaign against the Maoists in Dantewada and Bijapur districts.

Centre wants stern action

New Delhi: Terming as “barbaric”, the killing of 15 out of the 52 people abducted by Naxalites in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, the Centre today asked the state government to deal “most sternly” with the perpetrators of the attack and intensify combing operations to nab them.

The government has “expressed its serious concern and condemns the gruesome killing of 15 innocent people,” a Home Ministry statement said here.

“This barbaric act of killing of innocent civilians by Naxalites is contrary to all norms of a democratic and rule-based society and calls for strongest condemnation by one and all,” it said.

The Home Ministry has asked the state government to counter such inhuman and senseless acts of violence “most sternly and to further intensify search and combing operations in the area to nab the Naxalites responsible for the brutal killing,” it said.

It said the Centre is “constantly in touch” with the Chhattisgarh Government and “is keeping a close watch on the situation”.

The Chhattisgarh Government has appointed former Mr K.P.S. Gill, former Punjab Director-General of Police, as Adviser to guide the police to effectively counter the Naxal menace.