Sarpanch aspirants relive Naxal nightmare Around 130 sarpanch aspirants had to fight cold and hunger for five days after being held hostage by Maoists in a dense forest in Chhattisgarh’s insurgency-wracked Sukma district recently. The panchayat poll candidates, who were set free on January 15 with a warning not to contest the ensuing rural local bodies elections, scheduled to be held in the state in four phases from end of this month, narrated their nightmarish experience while they were in the rebel custody in January 9-15. “We were herded to the core of forest near Gonguda hill range and made to sit under trees. We reached the area after sunset. We did not have additional clothes or food with us. We were given the impression that we will be let off after a meeting with Naxals. “But we came to realise that we had been held hostage after we reached near the Gonguda hill. We started shivering as night temperature dipped to around 4-5 degrees Celsius. We had to fight cold and hunger the whole night. “The next day, some kids came with utensils, paddy and red chillies. We had to remove the husk to cook rice ourselves. We were forced to live on cooked rice along with salt and red chillies for the next five days. Our hostage life had been spent under the open sky,” the sarpanch candidates narrated their ordeal in rebel custody before the local police after their release. They were not even allowed to go to the nearby pond to wash their body. “We called them for interrogation when we received information of their release from Maoist custody,” a senior district officer told this newspaper unwilling to be quoted. In the morning of January 15, divisional committee member Jaggu, along with Kerlapal area committee commander Bhime, alias Reena, and armed rebel cadres, reached there to warn them against participating in the elections before they were set free. ================================= Naxals set two trucks on fire in Gaya Naxals set two trucks on fire in a village near Gaya late Tuesday evening. “They gathered the labor staff and said that the work is going on even after they had ordered not to. Then everyone was made to stand aside, they sprinkled petrol on the trucks and set them on fire,” said Surendra Prasad Yadav, a truck owner. “Last evening two trucks from Hari Om Constructions were set on fire. The FIR has been registered in the local police station. It can be identified as a Naxal attack,” said Rakesh Kumar, the superintendent of area. ================================= BSF jawans to be redeployed in Maoist-prone areas: Odisha DGP Odisha’s Director General of Police (DGP) Sanjeev Marik today said Border Security Force (BSF) jawans engaged in Maoist-prone areas in the state will be re-deployed keeping in view the intelligence inputs. “We took stock of the Maoist situation in the state and discussed the redeployment of the BSF personnel so as to make all possible use of the central forces. “We have decided to withdraw the BSF from places where Maoist activities have scaled down and redeploy them in places where there has been a spurt in Left Wing Extremism (LWE),” Marik said after a meeting of the state police and the BSF. Presently, BSF jawans were deployed in the Maoist hot-bed of Koraput and Malkangiri districts. Their presence has helped the state police to weed out the rebels from certain pockets, sources in state home department said. Besides senior police officers of Odisha Police, BSF’s additional DG K K Sharma discussed on the Maoist situation and operations in the state and it was decided to relocate the forces to areas where Maoists were more active. =============================== SPO killed by Maoists near Ranchi Suspected Maoists have killed two persons, including a special police officer (SPO) near Bundu, about 50 km from the Jharkhand capital, the police said today. The two were shot dead near a school in Ranchi district’s Bundu area last evening. “One of them was a SPO,” Ranchi Senior Superintendent of Police Prabhat Kumar said. =============================
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 06:52:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015