Maoists kill two tribal villagers in separate incidents in Bastar

RAIPUR:

Two tribal locals were brutally killed by Maoists in Bijapur district of Bastar division in Chhattisgarh on the intervening night of Monday.Bastar police in a statement issued, said that the incident took place in Tarrem region when 4 to 5 unidentified, armed Maoists attacked and killed two men using sharp-edged weapons at villages located 6-8 kms apart, having a security camp in between.The victims were accused of working as police informers and the violence was carried by two separate groups of Maoists.The Maoists had dragged the victims out of their houses and murdered them in front of the villagers, police said.The victims have been identified as Kawasi Joga (approximately 55 years old), a resident of village Chhutwai, and Manglu Kursam (approximately 50 years old) from village Bada Tarrem. Kawasi was killed at around 1030 pm and Manglu around 2.30 am.Police officials from Bastar have confirmed receiving information about the incident and are currently verifying the details. A team of cops was sent to the remote village for probe.Security forces have recovered handwrittenwritten leaflets from the spots of crime. One of leaflet, stained in blood, stated that Manglu was working as police informer and despite several warnings, he didn’t abide by the instructions given, hence, killed.

The Jagargunda area committee of CPI (Maoists) claimed the responsibility of the killing. Another leaflet by Pamed area committee stated the same for deceased Kawasi.With back-to-backto back incidents of violence and killings in past six months, Bijapur and Narayanpur districts of Bastar division are on the top worst insurgency-affected places in the country, a CRPF official told TOI. He said, be it anti-Naxal operations, encounters, killing of civilians, recovery of blasting of IEDs, surrenders or arrests, two districts of Bastar are making it to the top in the list of insurgency.Over ten civilians have been killed by Maoists in past 25 days including two school teachers in Bijapur district. Those on the target are mostly the relatives of surrendered cadres, or the surrendered ones themselves, or others are accused of working as police informers.Local villagers are the among the easy accessible people for Maoists and are the most vulnerable ones, hence the threat of Maoists looms low upon those residing in interior regions of Bastar. Besides, the locals become victim to IEDs planted by Maoists to target security personnel.On Sunday, a 16-year-old boy sustained severe injuries after coming in contact with a pressure IED that went off. He is presently receiving treatment and is in a poor condition.