RAIPUR, May 25: At least 17 people, including senior Congress leader Mahendra Karma, were killed and former union minister V C Shukla and 19 others injured when heavily-armed Maoists ambushed a convoy of party leaders inside a dense forest in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district.
The Maoists also kidnapped PCC chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son Dinesh after attacking the convoy of Congress leaders in Darba Gati Valley near Jagdalpur, headquarters town of Bastar district, police said.
Joint Secretary (Naxal management) in Union Home Ministry M A Ganpathy told in New Delhi that 17 people were killed and around 20 injured in the attack.
Most of the dead and injured were Congress leaders and workers, he said adding four to five of those killed in the attack were Personal Security Officers of the Congress leaders.
At a late night press conference, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh put the number of dead in the Naxal attack at 16 and did not give any figure of the injured.
84-year-old Shukla underwent an operation in Jagdalpur hospital for the three bullets he had received in the attack to be taken out of his body.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi said in New Delhi that Shukla was hit in his stomach.
Raman Singh said the condition of Shukla was stated to be stable.
Besides Karma, former Congress MP Gopal Madhavan and ex-MLA from Rajnandgaon Udya Mudaliyar were also shot dead and prominent woman tribal leader Phulo Devi Netam, Bastar, wounded by the Maoists who attacked the convoy at around 1730 hours when they were returning from the party’s “Parivartan” rally.
Karma, a former Home Minister and founder of “Salwa Judum” (anti-Naxal operation by vigilante groups), was surrounded by about 100 to 150 Maoists who peppered his body with bullets.
The Maoists had put up road blocks by felling trees before triggering a landmine blast that hit one of the vehicles in the convoy and opening fire, police sources said.
After carrying out the attack, the ultras set nearby trees on fire.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh tonight talked to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and asked him if any Central assistance is required by the State in the wake of the Maoist attack on Congress leaders.
UPA Chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi condemned the incident, saying it was an attack on the democratic values.
PMO sources said Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh called up Raman Singh soon after the Maoist attack. He asked the Chief Minister if more central forces are required urgently by the Chhattisgarh Government, the sources said.
The Congress president expressed shock and anguish over the dastardly attack in Chhattisgarh on party workers.
“It is an attack on democratic values which need to be condemned by not only political parties, but society as a whole,” Gandhi said in a statement.
“The Prime Minister condemns the attack on Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh as a dastardly and anti-democratic act,” a statement from the PMO said.
In his telephonic conversation with the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Singh offered all help in rescue and relief operations to the state.
Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi also condemned the Naxal attack on his fellow party leaders and said there is little option but to impose President’s Rule in the State.
“This is the greatest tragedy that has happened. I request PM Manmohan Singh that there is no remedy and President’s Rule must be imposed and we must take on the naxalites head on,” Jogi told reporters.
He alleged that 2,000 to 3,000 police personnel had been deployed for the on-going Vikas Yatra of Chief Minister Raman Singh while no security, other than personal security officers, was provided to Congress leaders who were taking out the Parivartan Yatra in the State. (PTI)
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