Can't label Maoist attack intelligence failure: Shinde

Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde Friday declined to label as an intelligence failure last week's Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh in which 28 people, including senior Congress party leaders, were killed, saying two probes are being conducted into the audacious assault.

Addressing a joint press conference with Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh here, Shinde who returned from the US Thursday, said: "We can't say if it was due to intelligence failure. A judicial commission and our own enquiry is being conducted. We will decide after we get the reports."

He said many of the intelligence inputs need to be verified to check their veracity before they are acted on. There were allegations that the intelligence agencies had been warned about an impending Maoist attack in Darbha Ghati. The attack left Congress leader Mahendra Karma, Chhattisgarh Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son Dinesh and former legislatorUday Mudaliyar dead. Many security personnel were also killed in the attack. Senior Congress leader Vidya Charan Shukla, who was seriously wounded, is in a critical condition in a hospital in Gurgaon, adjacent to the national capital.

Shinde said many development schemes were being conducted Maoist affected areas and many more were in the pipeline, "but when they kill people with some other philosophy, it cannot be allowed".

He said there was consensus between the centre and the states on tackling the Maoist menace.