Maoists torch road building vehicles

RAIPUR - Dozens of armed Maoists set afire vehicles engaged in road construction in Chhattisgarh’s restive Bastar region Monday, officials said.

The vehicles, mainly ‘tippers’, were engaged in work on national highway 221 in Dantewada district, over 400 km south of state capital Raipur.

“Maoists stopped the road construction work near Kukanar area and set the two tippers on fire and torched a few other vehicles. The road construction work has been halted now,” officials here at police headquarters told IANS. They added that extra police force was rushed to the site.

In another incident, Maoists stormed into an iron ore mine in Bailadila hills of Dantewada district Sunday night and assaulted at least four Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel deployed at the site, police said.

Reports reaching from the mine that is owned by public sector National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) said that rebels briefly held hostage the four CISF men before releasing them.

The Maoists walked away with hand grenades of the CISF personnel, police said.

Dantewada is one of the worst Maoist-affected districts of the state along with Bastar, Bijapur, Narayanpur and Kanker districts that form a 40,000 sq km Bastar region which is considered the rebels’ hotbed since the late 1980s.