Naxal programme hits Bastar industries

Major industries located in the restive Bastar region of Chhattisgarh bore the brunt of Naxalites fury on the first day of the rebels' martyrs week that started Wednesday.

The Naxal guerillas late Wednesday night struck at various places in Dantewada district about 450 km from here and targeted the facilities of Essar and country's largest iron ore miner National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC).

A senior police official in Dantewada said that about 250 heavily armed Naxalites around midnight stormed into the weigh-bridge of Essar located near Kirandul in Dantewada district. The rebels later set five trucks on fire that were lined up for loading iron ore.

 

The Essar Steel has a 4-million tonne iron ore beneficiation plant near the spot. The operation in the plant was, however, suspended about a year ago after the Naxalites blew up a portion of 267-km pipeline in June 2009 near Chitragonda (Orissa), close to Chhattisgarh border.

The pipeline was used to carry iron ore slurry from the beneficiation plant to Essar's pellet plant located in Visakhapatnam. The damaged portion could not be repaired till now following threats from the Naxalites.

The company officials said that about a month ago, the production was restored in the plant but the operation. Instead of pipeline, the company was transporting iron ore through trucks to Jagdalpur (about 125 km), from where the load was dispatched by rakes to Visakhapatnam, the officials said.

Following the Naxals martyrs week, the loading work was ended up two hours before at 7 pm yesterday. However, the trucks lined up near the weigh bridge to load iron ore early in the morning. Police officials said the operation of Naxalites was well planned.

The rebels first struck at the main gate of Essar plant and snatched away the mobile phones from the security guards in a move to cut off the communication network, the police official said. They later stormed into the weigh-bridge located nearby and set five trucks on fire.

When the rebels were targeting at the Essar facility, officials and employees of NMDC in the Kirandul township woke up to the gun shot as another group of Naxalites made vain attempt to attack the mining plant of country's largest iron ore exporter and producer.

A group of Naxalites tried to attack NMDC's deposit number 14 near Kirandul. But the alert Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) foiled their move by giving befitting reply.

The retaliation by the security force resulted in a gun battle that ended with the rebels retreating into the adjoining forests.

Police officials said a major incident was not ruled out had rebels sneaked into the plant.