Maoists forcibly halt a bus, kill a policeman

Sukma district in Chhattisgarh state (Source: Google Maps)

The cadres of the CPI (Maoist) killed a constable of the Chhattisgarh Armed Force in Sukma district on Saturday morning. Shiv Kumar was travelling in a passenger bus when the Maoists forced the driver to stop near Temelwada. They identified the policeman, asked him to get down and killed him.

“He was unwell and travelling in a bus to a health centre. The Maoists did not spare even a patient. It shows their extremely cruel behavior and disregard for human rights,” ADG (Naxal) Ops RK Vij said.

While the Maoists often forcibly halt passenger buses in Bastar and let them go only after frisking the travelers, they seem to have increased the frequency recently. In the last fortnight, this is the third instance that they stopped a passenger bus in the region.