Nearly 180 tribals, including women and children, have left their village in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district following Maoist threats to “eliminate them” if they “cooperate with police”, official reports reaching here on Saturday said.
According to the police, a group of armed Maoists surfaced in Mahala village Thursday midnight and dragged all the villagers out of their houses. The rebels then threatened to kill each of them if they helped the police.
Within an hour of the rebels leaving the village, 30 families, comprising 174 people, fled overnight, walking almost 25 km to reach Pankhanjoor on Friday morning. They later met the local additional district magistrate who arranged their stay in the high school. The local administration also distributed food and other material.
The villagers carried the bare minimum, like clothes, utensils, leftover food grain and goats, official sources said. Only four families have stayed back in the village, official sources said, adding that they may be Maoist sympathisers.
“The villagers panicked when the rebels threatened to wipe them out. We have given them shelter in a school in Pankhanjoor. The administration will take care of their needs till they return to their village,” Kanker DSP Ajay Yadav said.