The dreaded
Naxals, Maoist extremists, ambushed a Congress convoy last evening in a dense
forest area near Bastar in Chhattisgarh state of India and killed 28 including
several prominent local Congress leaders. More than 30 were injured including
the former Congress Union Minister VC Shukla who is in a critical condition.
Around 250 Naxals ambushed a Congress convoy of nearly forty cars that was
returning after a rally and attacked them with landmine blasts and rain of
bullets. The security in charge of the convoy ran of ammunition while countering
the attack. Then the ruthless Maoists surrounded them, took away their mobiles
and shot many of them in cold blood. This is the worst Naxal attack of all time
in Maoist-infested Chhattisgarh, and follows the recent attack on a Doordarshan transmission center early this month that killed three security personnel. The Naxalism
has also been a huge challenge in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra bordering
Chhattisgarh in the east with frequent encounters between Naxals and security
forces.
The Prime
Minister of India
Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi visited Chhattisgarh
today and described this as a heinous attack on democracy. They also appealed
to all political parties to sink their differences on this matter of grave concern and put up a united front to
tackle the issue. Many leaders of the national opposition BJP condemned the
attack and the Chief Minister of the BJP ruled Chhattisgarh assured of all
possible steps.
Of late the
Naxals have been gradually becoming indistinguishable from the terrorists and
as the Prime Minister said today this is posing the biggest challenge to the
internal security of the country. Although the Naxals are left-oriented and extremely
dissatisfied at the present system, they are still citizens of India which
makes the policy to deal with them vexed and complicated. Since some terrorist
groups inside the country had been invited for talks with the Government we can
suggest the same for the Naxals, trying to convince them and bring them to the
negotiation table. Repressive violent measures are likely to incite more
violence. We condemn this heinous attack against humanity with all our heart
and pray for prevention of such attacks in future.
