Maoists on Friday killed a tribal Congress leader, contesting for the post of sarpanch in the ongoing three-phase panchayat elections in Dantewada district in south Bastar of Chhattisgarh.
Raipur: Maoists on Friday killed a tribal Congress leader, contesting for the post of sarpanch in the ongoing three-phase panchayat elections in Dantewada district in south Bastar of Chhattisgarh.
According to the police, a group of ultras armed with sharp weapons barged into the house of Joga Barse (52) in Aranpur early on Friday morning and hacked him to death after confining his family members in a room.
“Six to eight Naxals with their faces covered broke into our house when we were asleep. They caught hold of Barse while pushing other members of the family into a room at knife point. They brutally murdered him with sharp weapons. His wife tried to come to his rescue but she was simply thrown out of the house by them”, one of the family members told this newspaper on phone.
The slain tribal was a former sarpanch of Aranpur and currently contesting for the post of Aranpur sarpanch in this election.
Although, the panchayat polls are held on non-political basis, Congress was backing his candidature in the polls.
His wife was also a former sarpanch.
The three-tier panchayat elections in Chhattisgarh are scheduled to be held on February 17, 20 and 23.
Police reached the spot after being informed about the incident and sent the body for postmortem.
“Barse was killed by Maoists. The motive of the killing could be ascertained after the probe”, Dantewada district superintendent of police Gaurav Ray told this newspaper.
Barse was the second political leader slain by Maoists in Dantewada district.
Maoists had killed the then sitting BJP MLA Bheema Mandavi by blowing up his vehicle in Dantewada district just before the May 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
As many as 68 civilians were killed by Maoists in Naxal-infested Bastar division comprising seven districts in the last one year.
