Naxals slit village chief's throat in C'garh's Bastar area

The sarpanch of a village in Chhattisgarhs Bastar district was killed by Naxals at his home, police said today.
The sarpanch of Chhindgur village, identified as Pandru (45), was killed after a group of armed rebels stormed his house and slit his throat last night, Deputy Inspector-General of Police (south Bastar range) P Sundararaj told PTI.
The village where the incident happened is located inside dense forests about 25 kilometres away from Darbha which itself is about 350 kms away from Raipur, Sundararaj added.
On getting information about the incident, a police team rushed to the village and the sarpanch's body was brought for postmortem, he informed.

The official said that people from Chhindgur and nearby villages including Koleng have been opposing Naxal activities for the past couple of months now and it has left the Maoists frustrated.
He said that the Naxals tended to kill villagers or village heads branding them as police informers just to remind people of their power.

The official said that the Kanger Ghati area committee of the Maoists which operates in the Darbha area has suffered a crippling blow in the past couple of years with most of its cadre either killed, arrested or surrendered.
Sundararaj said that the cadre strength of the Maoists in this area may now be in single digits.

"On the demand of villagers, a police camp was set up in Koleng last month which was recently taken over by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)," he said.