Maoists attack convoy

Heavily-armed rebels raid political convoy

Hundreds of Maoist rebels killed at least 23 people in an attack on a convoy carrying Congress leaders in India.

RAIPUR: A heavily-armed gang of nearly 300 Maoist rebels killed at least 23 people in an attack on a convoy carrying local Congress party leaders and supporters in central India, police said yesterday.

The land mine and gun attack on Saturday was the deadliest in three years and the latest in a long-simmering conflict that pits the insurgents against authorities in the forests of mainly central and eastern India.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who rushed to the Chhattisgarh state capital Raipur along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the ambush, condemned what she called a ‘‘cowardly act’’ by the Maoists.

‘‘It is not an attack on Congress or its leaders, but an attack on democratic values,’’ she told Congress party workers after visiting the injured, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

State Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, his son Dinesh, and former state home minister Mahendra Karma — who had set up a controversial anti-Maoist group in 2005 — were among those killed in the assault in a remote tribal belt of the state.

‘‘The total number of dead now stands at 23. We can also confirm that 32 people are injured, most of them seriously,’’ state police director-general Ramniwas, who goes by one name, said.

Former federal minister Vidya Charan Shukla was badly injured and was airlifted to Delhi in ‘‘serious’’ condition, said Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who flew to Raipur late on Saturday.

The 84-year-old Shukla, a veteran Congress parliamentarian, was being treated by a team of doctors at a private hospital on the outskirts of the capital.

The rebels triggered a land mine before opening fire at the convoy of Congress party workers and leaders who were leaving the area after a political rally, police said.

At least five policemen also lost their lives in the attack in the Jagdalpur area of Bastar district, 375km south of Raipur.

‘‘When our cars reached a turning point, the Naxals started firing,’’ an injured Congress worker told NDTV, referring to the rebels who are also known as Naxalites. ‘‘Two cars were blown up and the firing continued for almost one and a half hours. Many people were killed and many sustained bullet injuries. Some of us lay on the road to save ourselves.’’

Mr Singh, who has described the Maoists as the country’s most serious internal security threat, said the ambush should spur the battle against extremists.

‘‘Those who have lost their lives in this barbaric attack are martyrs of democracy,’’ he said after visiting the wounded in hospital yesterday.

‘‘We have to be more determined in fighting Naxal extremism. These lives should not go in vain.’’

Maoist rebels have been fighting since 1967. They demand land and jobs for the poor, and want to establish a communist society by overthrowing what they call India’s ‘‘semi-colonial, semifeudal’’ form of rule.

The revolt is believed to have cost tens of thousands of lives.

In April 2010 a rebel assault killed 76 policemen in the state, where the Congress party is the main opposition.