RAIPUR, India - Hundreds of Maoist rebels stormed a government relief camp in central India on Monday and killed at least 25 people, including members of a state-backed, anti-Maoist group, police said. More than 50 were wounded, and at least 100 people living at the camp housing the Salwa Judum (Campaign For Peace) were missing after the rebels, many armed with automatic weapons, launched the raid in the insurgency hit Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh state.They also set at least 20 houses on fire. “The death toll has reached 25 with the recovery of eight charred bodies from debris of burnt houses,” Dantewada police chief Om Prakash Pal told Reuters by phone. He said three children and three women were among the dead.
| Any reason to let a Maosist with a weapon live? |
The camp is at Arabore village in Dantewada, around 510 km (320 miles) south of Raipur, the state capital. Many of the seriously wounded have been taken by road to the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh for treatment. Police said the majority of those killed belonged to the Salwa Judum group, an anti-Maoist movement set up by the state government and often the target of the rebels. It draws members from local tribes, and activists are usually armed only with bows and arrows.
Hundreds of extra state and federal police have been sent to the heavily forested area to search for the rebels and those missing.