25 killed in naxal attack in Chhattisgarh

Dantewara, Chhattisgarh, July 17 (UNI) At least 25 people were killed and nearly 150 were injured when armed naxalites raided a relief camp, set ablaze houses and abducted scores of tribals from Erabor village, about 130 Kms from here, in the wee hours this morning.

Unconfirmed sources, however, put the death toll at 35 and indicated that the casualties could be more. Thirty-one of the seriously injured were being taken to a hospital at Badrachalam in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

Police sources said armed cadres of the banned CPI(Maoist) stormed the Erabor relief camp, where nearly 5,000 villagers had taken shetler after deserting their villages following threat from the naxalites.

Reports received at the Bastar divisional headquarters Jagdalpur said the Peoples Liberation Gurrellia Army (PLGA) militia axed 15 people to death with sharp edged weapons and shot two others during attack on relief camp.

Five villagers were burnt alive, as they set ablaze 300 houses.

The state government had set up relief camps in the South Bastar region to provide shelter to more than 65,000 people who had deserted nearly 900 villages following threat from the naxalites.

Most of these relief camps were being developed into villages with the government providing houses to those who were displaced from their villages.

However, the CPI(Maoist) cadres have started targetting these relief camp turned villages to force the people to return to their native villages.

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