Chhattisgarh

 <sup>A 35-year-old man was killed by naxals in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, after accusing him of being a police informer, a police official said on Saturday.

The deceased, identified as Lokesh Kartam, was attacked by naxals late last night at his house inBade Gudra village under Kuakonda police station limits, the official said.</sup>

^{"As per the preliminary information, a group of armed naxals stormed into Kartam's house and killed him with sharp
weapons," Dantewada Additional Superintendent of Police Gorakhnath Baghel told PTI.}

^{Soon after being informed about the incident, a police team was sent to the place this morning and the body was}

<sup>brought to the police station, he said.

"According to the villagers, the ultras claimed that Kartam was working at the behest of police," Baghel said adding that the victim was not associated with the police in any way.

A case has been registered in this connection and a search operation has been launched in the area to trace the ultras, he added.

With this, Dantewada district has witnessed four incidents of attack y Naxals in the last three days.

These attacks are being viewed as Naxals' reaction to the death of their 15 colleagues in an encounter with security forces in neighbouring Sukma district on August 6.

Two days after the encounter, naxals had torched two buses and a truck in Bhansi area of Dantewada after asking occupants of the vehicles to alight.

Police had later recovered a human skeleton inside one of the charred buses.

In another incident on the same day, the engine of an empty rake of the Visakhapatnam-Kirandul passenger train derailed after Naxals uprooted railway tracks near Kamaloor railway station in Dantewada.

On August 9, Maoists had torched a JCB machine, engaged in pipeline laying works, in Kuakonda area, while yesterday, they had set ablaze five empty trucks in Bacheli area of the district.</sup>

^{An officer of the CRPF's elite CoBRA unit was injured on Tuesday when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) laid by Naxals exploded in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, police said.}

^{The incident took place near Timilguda village, around 500 km from here, when a team of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) was out on an area domination operation, Sukma Superintendent of Police Abhishek Meena told PTI.}

^{When the patrolling team was on the way back to its camp, Assistant Commandant K Ijung inadvertently stepped on the pressure IED connection, triggering the blast, he said-}

^{The assistant commandant, belonging to CoBRA's 201st battalion, received splinter injuries in his abdomen, he said.}

^{Reinforcement was rushed to the spot and the injured officer was shifted to a field hospital of the paramilitary force in Chintalnar, Meena said.}

^{Efforts were on to airlift the injured officer to Raipur, but the bad weather and continuous rainfall in the area were hampering the evacuation operation, another police official said.}

^{The CoBRA is a specialised unit of the Central Reserve Police Force and is proficient in guerrilla tactics and jungle warfare. It is ranked among one most experienced and successful law enforcement units in the country.}

^{Yesterday, 15 Maoists were gunned down in an encounter with security forces in a dense forest in Sukma, police earlier said.} 

^{A top Naxal commander, who was carrying a bounty of Rs 5 lakh on his head, surrendered before the authorities in Raipur along with his wife on Thursday.} 

^{According to ANI, Ravi - the dreaded Naxal rebel - surrendered before the Chhattisgarh Police along with his wife Budhri in Raipur.}

^{His wife Budhri too carried a reward of Rs 5 lakh on her head.}

^{Interestingly, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh had on Thursday urged the Naxals to surrender and join the mainstream or else the security forces were ready to "finish" them.}

^{The Chief Minister had made this appeal while speaking at the passing out parade of trainee constables at the Police Training School in Mana Camp area.}

^{Singh said that due to the action taken by the security forces, the state was heading in the direction of finishing the Naxal menace.}

^{"The state government has given a strong message to Naxals that they should join the mainstream. Either they should surrender or security forces are ready to finish them. Now there is no way left for them," Singh said.}

^{He said that it is due to the continuous efforts of the security forces that the Surguja district had been fully cleared of Naxals.}

^{Singh asked the tribal population in the state to support the government to get rid of Left Wing Extremism.}

^{Addressing the function, the CM said that it was for the first time in the history of Chhattisgarh that women will be joining the CAF.}

^{Sops for police like the construction of 10,000 houses and an automated kitchen at the PTS, which will cook meals for nearly 600 personnel every day, were also announced by Singh.}

^{The BJP veteran also sanctioned Rs 1.2 crore for the kitchen and claimed that work on building 6,000 houses for police personnel had already begun.}

^{He said that gymnasium facilities, currently available at district and battalion levels, would be extended to sub-divisions and police stations as well.}

^{Bulletproof jackets for police personnel will be procured every year while constables to inspectors would be given monthly response allowance to ensure they reach the site of an incident at the earliest, he said.} 

^{A total of 526 constables, including 345 women, were commissioned into the Chhattisgarh Armed Force during the passing out parade.}

^{The Naxal couple is believed to be involved in abduction of then Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon from Sukma's Kerlapal in 2012, and several incidents of loot and bomb blasts.}

^{During an interaction with the Chhattisgarh Police officials, Ravi said that he was asked to join the Naxalite movement to serve the poor people and take revenge from the government for allegedly suppressing the marginalised and the downtrodden.}

^{''I was asked to join Naxals to serve people and defeat the government. I was involved in loots, bomb blasts and encounters. Later, I realised that it’s of no use to be with Naxals.''}