New Delhi: Two days after 12 alleged Maoists were killed by security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, villagers and activists on Sunday (May 12) said those killed were not Naxalites but local residents.
According to a Hindustan Times report, the villagers who gathered outside the Bijapur District Collectorate to demand the dead bodies said that their family members were killed by the security forces in a ‘fake encounter’.
The police have denied these claims. Officials claim that only Maoists were killed in the encounter, and that they had dressed like local people after seeing the police in the forest.
Villagers’ claims
Villagers allege that security forces have killed residents of the area and the encounter was fake.
According to Hindustan Times, Gurunanda, a resident of Pedia village who witnessed the encounter, said that some villagers had gone to pluck tendu leaves from the forest when the security forces came towards them. Seeing this, the villagers started running away. “They were shot down by the forces while they were running in fear and surprise,” he said, according to the newspaper.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.