CHHATTISGARH: 7 VILLAGERS MISSING IN SUKMA; MAOIST HAND SUSPECTED

RAIPUR: At least seven people from a village in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district are ‘untraceable’ since the last two days and are suspected to have been abducted by Maoists, police said on Tuesday. In another incident, Maoists killed a former colleague who had quit the outlawed outfit in Bijapur district, they said.

In the insurgency-hit Sukma, seven people were recently picked up by ultras for “unknown reasons” from separate localities of Kunded village under Jagargunda police station limits, Sukma Superintendent of Police Sunil Sharma said. “It is still not clear whether the villagers were abducted by the rebels or they voluntarily went with them,” he said.

As per preliminary investigation, the seven people were picked up by ultras from the village, while locals claimed they went to other places to attend a marriage function and for agricultural purposes, the official said.

Efforts were on to trace them, Sharma said. So far, no FIR has been lodged in this connection as no one approached the police, the official said, adding that they got to know about these seven ‘missing’ people from their sources.

However, a probe into the matter has been launched based on inputs that these people were allegedly abducted by Maoists, he said. Police sources said Naxals might have taken the villagers for a meeting.

LOCALS CLAIM THEY WENT TO OTHER PLACES TO ATTEND MARRIAGE FUNCTION AND FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES, AN OFFICIAL SAID