Raipur, Oct 18 (IANS) Dozens of armed Maoists set afire vehicles engaged in road construction in Chhattisgarh’s restive Bastar region Monday, officials said.
The vehicles, mainly ‘tippers’, were engaged in work on national highway 221 in Dantewada district, over 400 km south of state capital Raipur.
‘Maoists stopped the road construction work near Kukanar area and set the two tippers on fire and torched a few other vehicles. The road construction work has been halted now,’ officials here at police headquarters told IANS. They added that extra police force was rushed to the site.
Dantewada is one of the worst Maoist-affected districts of the state along with Bastar, Bijapur, Narayanpur and Kanker districts that forms a 40,000 sq km Bastar region which is considered the rebels’ hotbed since late 1980s.
