Naxals kill 16 tribals in Chhattisgarh on charges of spying for police

Raipur: At least 16 tribals were believed to have been killed by Naxals on charges of spying for police in Abujhmad area in Chhattisgarh’s south Bastar district of Narayanpur a couple of days ago, reports reaching the police said on Wednesday.

Special director general of police of Chhattisgarh D.M.Awasthi said body of a tribal has been retrieved while names of three other tribals killed by Naxals have been obtained.  “We are verifying the reports of mass killing of tribals by Naxals,” he added. Bastar range inspector general of police S.R.P Kalluri said the mass killing of tribals was carried out by the Naxals as a panic reaction to spurt in cases of surrender of Maoists and successful counterinsurgency operations leading to death of a number of ultras in Bastar in recent times.

Police sources said Maoists abducted 16 tribals from the villages of Netanar, Albeda, Parpa, Kundla and Matbeda in Abujhmad area, a Naxal-stronghold where administration was yet to reach, and killed them after producing them before a kangaroo court on February 29. “We have already dispatched security forces to the area to retrieve the bodies,” a senior district police officer told this newspaper. In another development, 23 Naxals, three of them carrying a reward of Rs one lakh each on their head, surrendered before the Bastar IG on Wednesday.