Naxals kill 5 abducted tribals

Jagdalpur, Bastar, Apr 29 (UNI) CPI(Maoist) naxalites have killed seven of the 50 tribals abducted in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, police said.

Five more bodies have been recovered today.

Police team from Erabore police station left for the spot after a bus driver tipped off that five bodies were lying on the roadside near Manikonta village on Sukma-Konta road, police sources said.

About 50 tribals given shelter in a relief camp opened by the state government at Manikonta village were abducted by the naxalites on Tuesday. Two of them were hacked to death on the same day.

Whereabouts of other abductees were not yet known, police said, adding that the ultras might have killed more tribals in Manikonta, about 150 Km from Dantewada district headquarters.

The ultras have recently intensified retaliatory steps as several villages have been vacated and about 50,000 people given shelter in relief camps in the wake of anti-naxal campaign ''Salwa Judum'' launched in south Bastar in June last.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh is scheduled to visit Dantewada today to hold a meeting of Bastar Development Authority.

Former Punjab DGP K P S Gill has recently taken charge as Security Adviser to the Chhattisgarh government to stamp out naxalite menace pervading more than ten of the state's 16 districts.

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