Deaths in Maoist attack put around 30 now

The toll in the Saturday evening attack by Maoist insurgents on the Congress convoy at Dharbha Ghati Valley in southern Chhattisgarh's Sukma district in the restive Bastar is close to 30, an official said Sunday.

Initial reports based on body count Saturday night said that at least 16 people were killed and 25 others were injured when the Maoists carried out a daring ambush of the Congress convoy in the forested area 35 km from Sukma. Some of those in the Congress convoy enjoyed the Z category security.

While a list of the dead and injured has been collected from various hospitals, search operations continue to find out if there are more bodies lying in the forested area, or if people have been taken hostage by the insurgents, a police official in the know of the combing operations said.

Listed among the dead are: Leader of Opposition in the Chhattisgarh assembly Nand Kumar Patel, his son Dinesh Patel, former leader of opposition Mahendra Karma, Chhattisgarh Congress president Uday Mudaliyar, former MLA from Rajnandgaon Gopichand Madhwani, Manoj Kumar, Chandrabhan Dhruv, Rajesh Chandrakar, Yogesh Sharma, Alladhoor, Emanual Kerketta, R. Ashok Kumar, Praful Shukla, Abhishek Golcha and Ganpat Nag.

Among those injured in the attack are former union minister Vidya Charan Shukla, Konta MLA Kawasi Lakhma, former Keshkal MLA Phulo Devi Netam, former MLA from Dhamtari Harshad Mehta, Shivnarayan Dwivedi, Malkeet Singh, Satar Ali, Nikhil Dwivedi, Rajiv Narang, Choleshwar Chandrakar, Anna Singh, Abdul Majid Khan, Oyi Ram, Ram Avatar, Rajesh Mishra, Chandra Shekhar Yadav, Rehan Khan, Surendra Sharma and Chandrabhan Jhadi.