26 die, 60 hurt as naxals strike relief camp in Chhattisgarh

Dantewara, July 17 (UNI) In one of the deadliest strikes in Chhattisgarh's gory history of insurgency, 26 persons were killed and 60 injured in an early morning raid on a relief camp by naxals who also torched houses and abducted scores of villagers at Erabor about 130 km from here.

Unconfirmed reports, however, placed the death toll at 30 in the assault by the outlawed Peoples Liberation Guerilla Army of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) at the camp where nearly 5,000 persons were sheltering.

Police said naxals fatally axed 18 persons and gunned down two while six were burnt alive as the ultras set ablaze houses in the camp. Several heads of cattle perished.

Official sources said 17 injured villagers, including seven extreme cases, were hospitalised at Bhadrachalam in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

A team of doctors was pressed into service at the camp to provide first aid. Four companies of paramilitary forces were tasked with conducting search operations in nearby forests to rescue the villagers.

Dantewara District Collector K S Pisda said, ''Steps are being taken to provide relief and alternate arrangements for food and shelter to people in the camp.'' Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh strongly condemned the attack on innocent tribals and added that it was an act of cowardice.

Home Minister Ram Vichar Netam and Director General of Police Om Prakash Rathor visited the camp.

(Eds: Pl pick up suitably from earlier series.) UNI XC-JJ AC 2002