After Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh, ruling-oppn parties begin blame game

Former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Raman Singh said that the Maoists are targeting BJP and this is the third Maoist attack on the BJP leader in a month and blamed the Congress government for deteriorating law and order in the state.

Raipur:After BJP's Narayanpur district vice-president Sagar Sahu was shot dead by two Maoists on Friday, the BJP took a jibe at Congress government for deteriorating law and order situation in the state. While the Congress said that a leader of their party was also killed in the Jhiram incident. It may be recalled that BJP leader Sahu sustained severe bullet injuries and was admitted to the district hospital where he succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment.

Addressing the media on Saturday, former CM Raman Singh said that the Maoists have been targeting BJP and this is the third Maoist attack on the BJP leader in a month. On the other hand, CM Bhupesh Baghel said that Congress leaders, too, suffered as the Maoists targeted their leaders also. When the political parties are slamming each other over the Maoists attacks, ETV Bharat recalled the Maoist attacks on political leaders as it has been more than 22 years since the formation of Chhattisgarh. Since then the state has been facing the onslaught of Maoists' attacks.

On Friday, Sagar Sahu was shot dead by suspected Maoists in the Narayanpur district in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region. On February 7, the BJP divisional head of the Awapalli area in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district was allegedly hacked to death by Maoists. The victim, Neelkanth Kakem, 40, was brutally attacked with sharp weapons around 3 pm at the Paikram village when he, along with his wife, went to a wedding.

On October 1, 2020, Maoists killed a local BJP leader and a Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) worker in two separate incidents in the south Bastar district of Bijapur in Chhattisgarh. According to the Bastar police, around a dozen armed Maoists barged into the house of Dhaniram (42), a local BJP leader and ex-sarpanch, in the village of Korsa Bardela under Jangela police station and dragged him out. Then they attacked him with sharp weapons even as his family members pleaded for mercy.

On April 9, 2019, in one of the worst poll violence by Maoists, a BJP MLA from Chhattisgarh and four police personnel were killed in an IED explosion in Dantewada when they were returning in their bullet-proof SUV after on the last day of campaigning in the Bastar Lok Sabha seat.

Whereas on May 23, 2013, the Maoist attack took place in Jheeram Ghati of the Dharba Valley along Chhattisgarh’s Jagdalpur-Sukma highway. The convoy of more than 20 vehicles carrying nearly 200 Congress leaders and workers was proceeding to attend a rally as a part of 'Parivartan Yatra'.

A team of 150 Maoists stopped the convoy by blasting a landmine and then opened fire. At least 27 persons were killed in the attack. Former External Affairs Minister Vidya Charan Shukla, the former leader of opposition in the state Mahendra Karma, the then Chhattisgarh Congress Pradesh Committee president Nand Kumar Patel, his son Dinesh Kumar Patel, and other Congress leaders, including Uday Mudaliyar and Gopi Madhwani, were among the killed.