Mixed response to bandh against Bastar carnage

Raipur, July 22 (UNI) The Congress-sponsored state-wide bandh against Naxalite violence and the state government's alleged failure to provide security to the tribals, evoked mixed response in Chhattisgarh today.

Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee has called the bandh to protest the killing of 33 tribaLs in Maoist attack at a relief camp at Errabore, where the villagers had taken shelter after deserting their house following threat from the rebels.

Shops and commercial establishments in state capital Raipur and other towns remained closed while vehicular traffic was thin all over the state.

Congressmen were seen moving around in the city, forcing shopkeepers to down their shutters.

A UNI report from Bastar divisional headquarters Jagdalpur said the bandh evoked good response in Kanker, Bastar and Dantewara districts. Leader of the opposition in the Vidhan Sabha Mahendra Karma and other Congress leaders were camping at Jagdalpur to make the bandh a success.

Reports from industrial town of Korba and Bilaspur said private buses kept off the roads in view of the bandh. Passengers had to face difficulties at many places as Chhattisgarh did not have a state-owned road transport corporation.

Meanwhile, in a statement here, CPCC President Dr Charan Das Mahant said the naxalites had raided the Errabor relief camp on July 17, killing 33 innocent tribals. He said the police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) remained a mute spectator when the naxalites attacked the relief camp.

He said the state government had failed to ensure adequate security to the villagers, who had taken shelter in the relief camps following naxalite threat ever since an anti-naxalite campaign began in Bastar in June last year.

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