By IANS
Raipur: Maoist rebels killed a police constable deployed to guard state Public Health Engineering Minister Kedar Kashyap in Chhattisgarh’s insurgency hit Bastar district, police said Sunday.
At least three Maoists, attired in school uniforms, late Saturday fired at constable Khubchand Sahu at a weekly market in Mardapal village, 260 km from here, a police official said.
Sahu succumbed to the bullet injuries on the way to hospital. A woman standing near Sahu also received bullet injuries and has been admitted to a hospital in the district headquarters at Jagdalpur.
The rebels escaped with the constable’s AK-47 rifle, the official added.
Police said Sahu was one of the guards deployed to provide security to Kashyap, who visited Mardapal Saturday to inaugurate a government hospital there.
The minister was at a guesthouse in the area when the attack occurred.
The Bastar region, comprising Dantewada, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Bastar and Kanker districts, is one of the strongest Maoist bastions in India. The rebels claim to be fighting for the rights of poor peasants and landless workers.
According to police, at least 200 people have died in Maoist related violence this year alone.