BJP worker murdered by Maoists in Chhattisgarh, seventh this year

“Unknown Maoists murdered him using an axe alleging he is an agent. He was returning home from a temple when he was murdered nearly 2 km away from the police station. Chits were thrown near his body to claim the murder,” an official said, adding that local police and ITBP personnel were questioning people to get more information. Manjhi’s wife is a Janpad Panchayat member.

In a related incident on November 24, two villagers who worked at Jayaswal Neco Industries Limited (JNIL) iron ore mine were killed and another was injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast at Amdai hill in Narayanpur district.

On November 4, Ratan Dubey, 50, a BJP poll coordinator and the party’s deputy chief in Narayanpur district, was murdered using sharp weapons by members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoists) while he was campaigning. Local sources said a few days later, Maoists dropped chits linking Dubey to the mines.

Maoists have been opposing the mine for a long time and had killed BJP district deputy chief Sagar Sahu on February 10. A ‘short action team’ reached Sahu’s residence and shot him dead with an AK-47. In the past, several villagers had protested against the mines but the protests died down later. Sahu was reportedly targeted by Maoists as he encouraged villagers to work in the mine and allegedly had business interests, a charge denied by his family.