Maiosts kill BJP leader, 8th in Chhattisgarh since last year

Around 8 pm while returning from the village a small action team of naxals attacked him with sharp weapons. He was rushed to district hospital in the headquarters area where he was declared dead.

This is the eighth killing of a BJP leader by Maoists in the state since last year and first killing of a BJP leader this year.

Before this in December last year Komal Manjhi a BJP worker was killed by Maoists in Narayanpur district. In November, Ratan Dubey, 50, a BJP poll coordinator and the party’s deputy chief in Narayanpur district, was murdered.

The fifth murder took place on October 20 under the jurisdiction in Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki district, when the victim, Birjhu Taram (53), was heading to a temple to celebrate Navratri. He was shot dead by unidentified assailants on a bike.

On June 21, Kaka Arjun, a 40-year-old former sarpanch in Maoist-affected Bijapur district, was murdered by Maoists.

The first three murders this year took place in February. On February 5, Neelkanth Kakem (48), BJP’s divisional head of Awapalli in Bijapur district, was killed when three alleged Maoists stabbed him with sharp weapons in Bijapur. On February 10, Sagar Sahu (47), deputy chief of BJP’s Narayanpur district unit, was shot dead at his home by two suspected Maoists. On February 11, Hitameta village resident Ramdhar Alami (43) was returning from a village deep inside Abujhmad, where he had gone to conduct some religious rituals, when he was waylaid by a group of alleged Naxals.