Naxalites abducted Chhattisgarh’s Sukma District Collector Alex Paul Menon from a public function on Saturday.
The 32-year-old Menon was addressing the villagers in Manjipara to make people aware of the “gram suraj abhiyan” programme — a village contact campaign launched by the Raman Singh government to take governance to the doorsteps of the villagers. There were intelligence inputs that Naxalites might strike in a big way during the campaign, sources said.
According to the villagers, the Naxalites opened fire before striking at the venue and killed the two security personnel escorting the district collector. The rebels, reportedly in civilian attire, asked the identity of the district collector and took him away with them. About 15 Naxalites were reportedly involved in the operation, police officers said. The incident took place at around 5 pm. A special team headed by Sukma Superintendent of Police Abhishek Shandilya has been formed to oversee the rescue operation. Additional forces and senior police officers have rushed to Sukma.
The Naxalites have, however, not put any demand, even as there was no communication from the rebel’s side over the incident.
Chief Minister Raman Singh termed the incident as unfortunate and said he would collect all the information before making an appeal to the Naxalites to release the collector. A high level meeting has been convened at his residence to take stock of the situation.
Singh said the gram suraj campaign would however continue despite the incident. The abduction of the district collector would put the state government on the backfoot, as the rebels would now put their demands for the release of Menon.
