Maoists kill of two former sarpanches in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur
Bijapur: Maoists killed two former sarpanchs in the insurgency-affected district of Bijapur after kidnapping them.
According to Kashmir Media Service, one of them was a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker who was killed for sticking with the BJP in spite of threats to leave the party.
Maoists also placed a leaflet on his body with a message to BJP workers, “Quit BJP or die.” On the morning of 5th December, the bodies of Sukhram Avalam and BJP leader Suklu Farsa were discovered at different places in the district. They were both kidnapped a day earlier. Farsa’s adolescent daughter posted a video in which she begged for his life, but all she received was his body with his neck cut.
Since February 2023, eleven BJP officials and three Congress workers have been killed in the Bastar division. Maoists have threatened BJP workers with death unless they leave the party.
On the night of 3rd December, Farsa was kidnapped from Aadwada while he was 7 kilometers away in Bhairamgarh, a Maoist hotspot, to attend a funeral. This area is around 400 km from Raipur and 50 km from the district headquarters of Bijapur. Three masked guys surrounded Farsa and his wife and pulled him into the wilderness. His daughter made a video plea for his release because the family wasn’t certain the kidnappers were Maoists. Sukhram was murdered in the Naimed area. The killings occur right before the state’s local body elections.
A Maoist pamphlet was found attached to Farsa’s clothes when his body was found in the Biriyabhoomi neighbourhood of Bhairamgarh. It declared that he was assassinated by the Bhairamgarh area’s Maoist committee because of his BJP affiliation. “He was warned two-three times by Maoists but he didn’t pay heed. The fourth time, PLGA punished him with death. We ask BJP workers to quit the party or else they will be given death punishment for sure. This is a warning,” it read.
