20 killed, 150 injured in Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh

Dantewara, Chhattisgarh, July 17: At least 20 people were killed and more than 150 injured when armed naxalites stormed a relief camp at Erabor on Konta road in the wee hours this morning.

Preliminary reports said the Peoples' Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) cadres of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) attacked the relief camp set up by the state government to provide shelter to the villagers, who had fled from their villages because of the terror unleashed by the naxalites.

A camp of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is also located near the Erabor relief camp.

Police sources said the casualties and the number of injured could be more. Further details would be available only after additional police reinforcement and district authorities reached the Erabor, a remote village in the naxalite infested Dantewara district. More

CPI (Maoist) cadres had stepped up violence in tribal Bastar region in June last year after a group of local tribals launched a movement against the naxalites. The locals named their campaign as 'Salwa Judum', which in local dialect means, peace mission. As the movement spread in South Bastar, the naxalites unleashed terror in the villages, alleging that 'Salwa Judum' was a government sponsored campaign to use the innocent tribes as a ' human shield' in the armed conflict between the security forces and the Maoists.

This triggered an exodus from the villages and more than 65,000 people from nearly 900 villages took shelter in the relief camps set up by the state government in South Bastar region. Though para-military forces have been deployed for protection of these refugee camps, the PLGA militia has been targeting these relief camps.

The latest attack on Erabor relief camp came a day after Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal reviewed the security situation at a high level meeting in Raipur. The union minister had also hailed 'Salwa Judum' movement against naxalites in Bastar and had appealed all sections of the society to extend their support to the movement, which, he said, would bring an end to the naxalite menace in Bastar.

UNI