On Saturday, a Congress convoy was attacked by Naxalites, and the death toll is reportedly rising. PCC chief Nand Kumar Patel, and his son, Salwa Judum chief Mahendra Karma, are dead.
There was a time when the proponents of Maoism felt the need to further the cause of agrarian classes which are exploited by the capitalist economy. But gradually, the ideology started postulating tenets that went along the lines of "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun". This radical, or rather extremist, tendency of the Maoists has manifested itself in the recent attacks on the convoy of Congress leaders, in Chattisgarh.
Indeed, from the fact that the death toll from the attack has reached 27 by now, and from the details of the gruesome murders of some of the Congress leaders who were ambushed by the Naxalites, it seems as if the Red Corridor is once again proclaiming its presence to the rest of the nation as the elections loom closer.
On the 25th of May, a convoy comprising Congress leader Mahendra Karma, PCC chief Nand Kumar Patel, former union minister V C Shukla, and ex-MLA Uday Mudliyar, amongst others, was making its way through the heavily-forested terrain of Darbha in the Bastar district. At around 4 pm, a group of Naxalites triggerred a blast, blowing up the second vehicle in the convoy, and then opened indiscriminate firing over the remaining members.
The security personnel of the Congress leaders retaliated, but soon ran out of ammunition.
The Naxalites (reported to be around 100 in number) then proceeded to check every vehicle. When Mahendra Karma, leader of the anti-naxal movement Salwa Judum, surrendered himself to the attackers, and pleaded with them to leave the other Congress members unharmed, he was captured, taken to a spot at some distance from the others, and was shot down by the naxalites.
Judging from the accounts of the eye-witnesses, multiple shots were fired until Karma was well and properly dead.
Now comes the truly flinch-inducing part.
After killing Mahendra Karma, the Naxalites reportedly performed a macabre song-and-dance routine around his dead body. They also trampled Karma's dead body during their frenzied celebrations.
The attackers did not just stop with the murder of one Congress leader, though. The bodies of Nand Kumar Patel, and his elder son, Dinesh, were recovered from Jeeram Ghati, on Sunday. The minister and his son had disappeared after the blast had been triggerred.
Ex-MLA Uday Mudliyar was found dead as well. V C Shukla was critically injured during the attack, and had to be air-lifted to the Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon.
Investigations have revealed that the number of casualties might have increased to around 32. 17 bodies were transferred to the Maharani Hospital of Jagdalpur in the early hours of Sunday.
The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has condemed this incident as a "dastardly act", and it has been reported that the PM has also ordered the Chattisgarh CM to deploy more than 600 paramilitary personnel, including elite COBRA anti-maoist commandoes to patrol and monitor the site, and indeed, the whole of the state, in case the Naxalites are in the mood for another bloodbath.
The PM also promised Rs. 5 lakhs as compensation for the families of the dead, and Rs. 2 lakhs to the injured.