Congress urges Chidambaram for CBI probe into Chhattisgarh tribal killings

By IANS,

Raipur : A delegation of Chhattisgarh’s opposition Congress urged union Home Minister P. Chidambaram Monday to order a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the killing of 17 tribals by police last week.


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The delegation led by state Congress chief Dhanendra Sahu met Chidambaram minutes after the minister landed at Raipur airport Monday evening to preside over a meeting to review the Maoist situation in Chhattisgarh, one of the worst hit by the Leftist violence.

“We handed over a memorandum to Chidambaram seeking a CBI probe into the Jan 8 killing of tribal civilians in Singaram village of Dantewada district. The 17 tribal civilians were killed in a fake encounter,” Ramesh Varlyani, state Congress general secretary, told IANS.

Police have strongly rejected the Congress’ claim and maintain that the people they killed in a gun battle were actually insurgents and not civilians.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and asked the Congress and other parties criticising the incident to await the final report of the inquiry.

The outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) observed a daylong strike Monday in the state’s southern restive Bastar region to protest the Jan 8 alleged civilian killings.

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