Chhattisgarh: Naxalites gun down Salwa Judum member in Bijapur

Raipur, Aug 26: A 45-year-old man who was an active member of the now-disbanded Salwa Judum was shot dead by suspected naxalites in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Bijapur district, police said on Wednesday.

Pidu Korsa was last night killed by suspected ultras at the Nayapara relief camp under Bijapur police station, a senior police official told PTI.

According to the official, villagers said that a group of armed rebels stormed the Nayapara relief camp, located around 3-km away from Bijapur town, and pumped bullets into Korsa, killing him on the spot.

Security forces were this morning dispatched to the scene of the attack, the official said, adding that Korsa's body has been sent for a post-mortem.

A manhunt has been launched to nab the attackers, who escaped into the jungles after carrying out the attack, he added.

Salwa Judum, an anti-naxalite civil militia, was disarmed and disbanded in the state following a Supreme Court order declaring as illegal and unconstitutional the deployment of tribal youths as Special Police Officers for combating Left- wing extremism.

PTI