By IANS
Raipur : Roads wore a deserted look and normal life came to a standstill in the forest stretches of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region Friday as the radical Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) observed its fourth foundation anniversary.
The CPI-Maoist was founded Sep 21 2004, with the merger of the Peoples’ War Group (PWG) and Maoist Communist Centre (MCC).
The group runs parallel government in the interior areas of the mineral-rich Bastar, spread across about 40,000 sq km in southern Chhattisgarh, bordering Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.
“The anniversary celebrations were totally peaceful though transporters kept vehicles off the road and people in the forest areas remained indoors fearing violence,” a police officer told IANS.
The weekly markets in tribal dominant areas were deserted Friday and the lone passenger train and a goods train plying on KK Line from Dantewada district’s Kirandul to Kothavalasa in Andhra Pradesh were suspended for the day.
The Bijapur, Dantewada, Bastar, Narayanpur and Kanker districts of Bastar region have been Maoist terror nerve centres for decades.
Violence in the region has escalated since June 2005 when locals launched the Salwa Judum civil movement against Maoists that has forced over 50,000 people to desert their villages and live in government-run relief camps.