Armed Maoists raid home of Chhattisgarh legislator

About 40 armed Maoists raided the home of a ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator in a village in a forested area of Chhattisgarh's Raipur district, police said Wednesday. Damrudhar Pujari said he was safe but in a state of shock.

The guerrillas, including several teenaged women cadres of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), raided Pujari's house between 10 pm and 11 pm Tuesday at village Mungapadar, about 160 km from here. They took away the service revolver and a few cartridges of his security guard.

"The attacked site is in the interior area in Raipur district close to the Orissa state border. The MLA was present when armed Maoists raided his house. He is safe," officials at the police headquarters here said.

"I am untouched and now safe but the incident has shocked me. They (the Maoists) have taken away the arms of my security guard. They argued with me for a while and raised slogans like 'Lal Salam' and 'Maoists zindabad'," Pujari said over the phone from his ancestral village in an interior area of Raipur and close to the Orissa border.

He said he was too stunned to give any details.

"I am the legislator of the state's ruling party and my house was attacked by armed Maoists. Though they spared me, police and authorities of Chhattisgarh are yet to take trouble to contact me whether I am safe or not," Pujari said.

The home department, it is learnt, has directed that police forces be rushed to Pujari's house. Efforts have also begun to strengthen the security cover provided to politicians who will be heading to their ancestral homes or constituencies in Maoist stronghold areas to celebrate Diwali.

Landmine blast in Dantewada, 2 SSB jawans killed

Two jawans of Sashastra Seema Bal ( SSB) were killed and two injured in a landmine explosion between Jagdalpur and Dantewada in Chhattisgarh, said T J Longkumer, Inspector general of Bastar.

Seema Suraksha Bal, posted to guard government camps in Dantewada, was being withdrawn from the district, said Vivekananda, deputy inspector general of police.

The vehicle that came under attack was bringing jawans to Jagdalpur, as part of the withdrawal, he added.

Chhattisgarh: Eleven Maoists arrested

Eleven senior Maoist cadres were arrested on Thursday in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, police said.

The arrests were made from Mardapal area of the district, some 300 km south of state capital Raipur.

The Maoists were arrested after specific intelligence inputs. They were involved in a series of looting and attack cases in the interiors of the Bastar region for three years, an officer at the police headquarters here said.

The forested interior areas of Bastar region, which is spread over 40,000 sq km, is considered the nerve centre of Maoist insurgency in India since the late 1980s.

Essar pays protection money to Maoists in C'garh: WikiLeaks

The Ruias-led Essar Group, which has mining interests in Chhattisgarh, pays protection money to Maoists to safeguard its operations in the state, a leaked US diplomatic cable said.

"A senior representative from Essar, a major industrial company with large mining and steel-related  facilities in Chhattisgarh, told Congenoff (Consul General Office) that the company pays the Maoists 'a significant amount' not to harm or interfere with their operations," a cable dated January 11, 2010, originating from the US consulate in Mumbai and released by WikiLeaks stated.

"When the Maoists occasionally break this agreement and damage Essar property or threaten personnel, Essar sets different Maoist groups against each other to suppress the situation," it said.

The cable said the Maoists pose a real threat to development and security in the region and efforts to bring these areas back  into the orbit of the government is warranted.

As the government prepared to initiate action against the Naxals in Chhattisgarh, the US consulate, based on the trip of its officials to the region, said that the potential for human rights abuses by the security forces in the state is high.