Chhattisgarh: Bastar Villages Hoist Tricolour for First Time Amid Maoist Threats
Raipur: For the first time, 13 villages in remote Bastar, declared once by Maoists as their ‘liberated zone’, in Chhattisgarh celebrated Independence Day by hoisting the national flag on Thursday, police said.
New security camps have been set up in these Naxal-infested villages in the last seven months.
Bastar division comprises seven districts such as Bastar, Kanker, Kondagaon, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Bijapur and Sukma.
“Tricolour is hoisted for the first time in the villages of Nerlighat (Dantewada district), Panidobir (Kanker district), Gundam, Putkel and Chhutvahi (Bijapur district), Kasturmeta, Maspur, Ikar Bhatti and Mohndi (in Abujhmad area under Narayanpur district), Tekulagudem, Puvarti, Lakhapal and Pulanpad (Sukma district) on the occasion of Independence Day on Thursday”, Bastar range inspector general of police P Sunderraj said.
In the villages of Kasturmeta, Ikar Bhatti, Tekulagudem, and Puvarti, the locals who have lost their kin in the Maoist violence and who have been affected by Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts triggered by Naxals attended the Independence Day function, he said.
Meanwhile, Maoists brutally killed two brothers in a gap of a week in puvarti village, the native place of dreaded Naxal commander and Central Committee (CC) member of outlawed CPI (Maoist) Madvi Hidma, under Sukma district in Bastar, police said.
Maoists barged into a house in Dabbapara area in Puvarti on Tuesday night and lynched Soyam Shankar (16) accusing him of being police informer.
His brother Soyam Dhurwa (19) was chased and beaten to death in the village a week ago, police said.
The family of the slain brothers could not muster courage to inform the police about the incident and quietly cremated the bodies in the village, police said.
“The two brothers had gone to Puvarti village to attend the funeral rites of their sister who died due to pregnancy complications. They hail from Palnar village under Dantewada district in Bastar”, a police officer in Sukma said.
