Monday, November 29, 1999

Dantewada again: At least 30 killed in Naxal attack

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Striking in a big way for the second time in a little over a month in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, Naxalites on Monday killed at least 30 people and injured 12 when they triggered a powerful landmine blast to blow up a private bus between Gadiras and Chingawaram in Konta tehsil, a Naxal hotbed."The casualties could be more. A police team is engaged in rescue and relief operations. We cannot say anything as of now", said Sukma deputy superintendent of police Sanjay Sharma.Police sources in Bastar said the number of deaths could be around 30 or more. The bus belonged to Ashwani Rajkumar Travels."The bodies are kept near the spot, covered with cloth. The actual number of casualties can only be known after more security forces reach the spot. It is dense forest area where movement of security forces, particularly after sunset, is extremely difficult because of the possibility of a landmine attack or an ambush," said a top police officer engaged in anti-Naxalite operations.It is for the first time that the Naxalites have targeted a passenger bus in which civilians were also travelling. The rebels have been repeatedly warning bus operators and private jeep owners not to allow security forces to board their vehicles. In the past, rebels had set ablaze the vehicles after forcing the civilians to get off.The police said the bus—which was on its way from Dantewada to Sukma—was packed with about 60 passengers on board. Initial reports said 20 security personnel, including special police officers (SPOs) were on the bus which hit a landmine between Gadiras and Chingawaram—an isolated road stretch passing through the dense forests of south Bastar.The incident took place 35 km from the Sukma block headquarters. The injured, including two SPOs and six others, have been admitted to hospitals in Gadiras and Sukma.The Maoist attack on the private bus is the second major attack after the April 6 incident in which Maoists massacred 76 security personnel, including 75 from the CRPF, near Chintalnar. On May 8, the rebels triggered a powerful blast in Bijapur district, killing eight personnel of the CRPF.In New Delhi, the Union home ministry condemned the attack on the bus and said most of those killed were civilians. An MHA spokesman said there was no CRPF personnel in the bus.The ministry said the toll could be 'pretty heavy' as the vehicle had the capacity to carry 65 to 70 passengers. "We have very sketchy details about the incident. We know that a bus has been blasted and the casualty can be pretty heavy," said special secretary (internal security) in the home ministry UK Bansal.Asked whether most of the passengers in the bus were civilians, he said "I would guess so". Bansal said the SPOs, who fell prey to the Naxal attack, were on their way to participate in recruitment to the regular police force. "The passengers of the bus were partly civilians and partly SPOs who were proceeding for some kind of a recruitment," he said.In Raipur, police sources said the Maoists have been trying to mount pressure on the security forces, particularly after the April 6 massacre, to try and demoralise the paramilitary forces and stall anti-Naxalite operations.Besides, the rebels have also started abducting and killing local civilians, accusing them of being police informers, so as to create fear and stop locals from assisting security forces.When the police mounted pressure on the Naxals in Bastar, the rebels shifted their focus to the Manpur-Mohalla region, close to the Maharashtra border, in Rajnandgaon district where they killed six civilians, including a gram panchayat president, and threw their bodies on the main road. The police suspected that the Maoists threw the bodies on the road to lure securitymen to the spot and try and ambush them.

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