Just a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Naxalite-affected Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region, Maoists killed a sarpanch in the district. Sarpanch Somaruram Mandavi of Darba village, which falls under Kutru police station, was killed on suspicion of being a police informant.
Mandavi was attacked as he was sleeping at his house around 10pm by a group of nearly 50 axe-wielding Maoists. The Maoists suspected him of supplying information about the movement of ultras.
While Mandavi was killed in Bijapur, in another incident in the Bastar region, a villager, Raju Sekku, was killed near the village of Gadmirhri near Kuaokonda police station in Dantewada district. The two different incidents took place in south Bastar where security forces are mounting immense pressure on the Maoists.
According to police, bodies of the two victims were sent for postmortem and handed over to their families. Raju was stabbed to death and his body was thrown on the road with hands tied. The Katekalyan Area Committee of Maoists in the area took responsibility for killing of the two men for allegedly being police informant.
The two killings come in the wake of the intense offensive launched by the CRPF in neighbouring Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra where security forces have eliminated over 37 Maoists in a continuous operation during the last three days.
Reports said 17 Maoists were killed on Monday while the remaining were shot dead when they were fleeing through a river. Later, 37 bodies of ultras were recovered by police.