Suspected Naxals on Thursday evening attacked Chhattisgarh women and child development minister Lata Usendi’s residence at district headquarters town of kondagaon in Bastar region and shot dead her guard, the police said.
The minister was however not present in her house during the Naxal attack, which came at around 7.30 pm.
“Two motorcycle-borne Naxals, members of a small action group (SAG) constituted by the Maoists recently to carry out such surprise ambushes on VIPs and their targets, opened fire from close range on the security guard deployed at the minister’s residence at Kondagaon and killed him on the spot. The ultras also looted his INSAS rifle before fleeing,” ADG (Naxal operation) told this newspaper here.
The victim, a constable of the Chhattisgarh police, was identified as Ratan Lal Netam, a tribal.
The “hit and run” attack, a new strategy adopted by the Naxals, has taken security forces off guard.
Police sources said the rebels have formed small action groups.
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PURI ‘GLORIFIES’ NAXALS, FACES POLITICAL ANGER
age correspondent
Raipur, May 17
Leaders of parties across the political spectrum in insurgency-hit Chhattisgarh on Thursday slammed veteran Bollywood actor Om Puri for “glorifying” Naxals by dubbing them “fighters”.
Mr Puri described the Naxals as “fighters” and “not” terrorists, while addressing a news conference at Bhopal earlier in the day during the shooting of the Prakash Jha-produced film Chakr-avyuha. He had gone to the extent of justifying the recent abduction of Sukma district collector Alex Paul Menon by Maoists. Chhattisgarh home minister Nankiram Kanwar said such glorification of the ultras by “ignorant” people like Mr Puri only encouraged the Naxals to indulge in heinous crimes.