Jharkhand Naxal attack: Rajnath warns of 'befitting reply'

Violence in Latehar and Palamau districts had killed six since Friday

Rajnath-Singh-rally-PTI Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addresses a public meeting ahead of Haryana Assembly elections, in Assandh, Haryana | PTI

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday warned Naxalites to abjure violence, saying a befitting reply would be given if they did not do so.

The warning comes in the wake of violence by the left wing extremists in Latehar and Palamau districts of Jharkhand since Friday, in which four policemen and two persons, including a local BJP leader, were killed.

"I have seen a couple of incidents happening in Jharkhand. You should rest assured that the BJP governments at the Centre and the state will not allow anybody [to] use guns. A befitting reply will be given to them," Singh said at a poll meeting at Pandu under Bishrampur constituency.

The rebels had also burnt down two earthmoving machines in Lohardaga district.

All the three districts are set to go to polls in the first phase on November 30.

The defence minister had on earlier occasions too urged the Naxalites to give up violence and come for talks, he said.

Recalling his meeting with the council of heads of government (CHG) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Tashkent early this month, the union minister said, the world is united to root out terrorism and except Kashmir, no big terror attacks had occurred in the rest of the country in the last five-and-a-half years.

Naxals stormed into a mining facility of state-owned National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district on Sunday and set ablaze some vehicles and machines, police said.

The incident took place around 11 am when rebels barged into the NMDC's Kirandul mining area, located on Bailadila hills, and torched six dumper trucks and three excavators, a senior police official said. On getting information about the incident, personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and police teams rushed to the spot following which Naxals escaped into the dense forest, he said.

"The machines were deployed in the construction of the facility's screening plant number 3. Combing operation is underway to nab the Naxals involved in the arson," he added.

In the past also, Naxals several times attacked NMDC's facilities in Dantewada to disrupt its mining operations.

Assembly elections in Jharkhand will be in five phases between November 30 and December 20.

Bishrampur is going for polls in the first phase and the BJP has fielded state's Health Minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi from the seat.