25 killed, 60 kidnapped: Naxals strike terror

The state-sponsored Salva Judum campaign against Naxalites in Chhattisgarh took a direct hit today when Left wing extremists used a landmine...

The state-sponsored Salva Judum campaign against Naxalites in Chhattisgarh took a direct hit today when Left wing extremists used a landmine to blast a convoy of trucks carrying Judum activists, killing at least 25 people and leaving another 40 injured. Officials expect the toll to rise.

The site of the attack is 145 km from the district headquarters of Dantewada in South Bastar. The convoy was heading towards Konta, very close to the Andhra Pradesh border, when the blast took place around 11 am. Some 60 Judum activists were also said to have been abducted by the Naxalites.

This is the first time that the Salva Judum campaign, reported at length by The Indian Express, was being taken to the deep south of Chhattisgarh. So far, their activities had remained confined to the Gidam-Bijapur belt in the south-west of the state.

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Incidentally, the campaign is being jointly scripted by the ruling BJP government with active support from the Opposition Congress. Leader of Opposition Mahendra Karma has been leading the campaign. Several camps have been opened for tribals and many of them are being trained in firearms and anti-insurgency operations. Naxalites call the Salva Judum “the mass hunting of innocent tribals”.

Officials said the Naxalites today targeted five trucks, blasting one and burning the rest. The police and Naxalites were engaged in gunbattles at several points while the injured were being shifted to Konta.

Chief Minister Raman Singh, on his way to the spot along with Karma and top state officials, told mediapersons at Dantewada that “it’s an irreparable loss which won’t be allowed to happen again.”

Admitting a security lapse, Singh said, “care will henceforth be taken that vehicles aren’t used in Judum.”

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Singh made it clear that the campaign would continue. “We will increase the security and Salva Judum will go on,” he said.

The incident, however, has proved the skeptics right on the security aspect of the campaign. “I have been saying this for long. Salva Judum is fine and the Naxal terror must end, but we must prevent loss of life at any cost,” says Rajendra Pambhoi, MLA from Bijapur constituency where the Judum campaign began and proliferated.

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi condemned the attack. Gandhi said she was “extremely pained and anguished to learn of the tragic killings of a large number of innocent people… This is yet another wanton act of violence by Naxalites. This latest incident is particularly unfortunate since the victims had been participating in peace marches.”