The CPI (Maoist) has apologized for the killing of an unarmed Chhattisgarh constable in Sukma district earlier this month. Shiv Kumar Sidar was unwell and travelling in a passenger bus from his camp in Chintalnar to a health centre when the Maoists forcibly halted the bus and killed Sidar. “Our guerrillas killed a policeman but this happened without the permission of our party. We seek an apology (for the act). Shiv Kumar Sidar was going for the treatment of his illness. He was not carrying arms for people’s exploitation. In such circumstances, we consider it wrong that he was nabbed and killed,” said a statement released on Monday by the South Regional Divisional Committee of CPI (Maoist). The statement added that “our stand towards the police remain the same what we had earlier said. Hum bina target wale police ko nahi marenge.(We will not kill police without target).” The apology also urged the security forces to stop harassing and torturing innocent villagers. This statement marks yet another apology from the rebels for their actions in the last 18 months. They apologized for the killings of two Bastar journalists last year. This April, they issued a “public apology” within 48 hours after blasting an ambulance and a minibus in Bastar that killed 14 persons, including five teachers and two men on medical duty, and expressed “extreme empathy” for the families of the deceased and the injured. Last October, Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee Secretary Ramanna had also noted that the killings of PCC Chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son Dinesh Patel in Darbha was a mistake.
