Naxals attack local festivities, kill ex-CM's son

New Delhi: Seventeen people were killed by armed Naxalites in Jharkhand's Giridih district. Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi's son was among them.

The band of armed Naxalites struck in the course of a local tribal festival's celebrations in Chilkhadi village, about 290 Km from Ranchi.

Marandi's younger son, Anupam, was killed in the attack.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Arun Kumar Singh said that about 30 Naxalites had mingled with the crowd during the cultural programme organised by Babulal Marandi's brother, Nunulal. At around 1300 hrs (IST), Naxals suddenly opened fire indiscriminately and exploded bombs.

"30-32 Naxal personnel attacked the cultural programme," said Singh. "They fired bullets and automatic weapons. Altogether 17 persons are dead and four are injured, out of which two are women."

Fourteen people, including Marandi's son, were killed on the spot and three succumbed to their injuries later. Babulal Marandi had been expected to attend the event but had not been able to make it.

"As Giridih borders Bihar, the police has sought and got Bihar police's cooperation," said Singh.

Four companies of CRPF engineers have also been sent into the forest to track the Naxals.

"Naxalites normally just shelter in the dense forest; and after incidents, they take off their uniforms. So, their identification is a tough task," opined Singh.

"Countering this menace is a long-term process and it is going on in the state since some time," he added.

Babulal Marandi, who is the Lok Sabha MP from Koderma, said it is difficult to rein in the Naxals.

The entire nation is their target," said Marandi. "They will eliminate anyone who comes in their way."

"My family has been the target of Maoist rebels for a long time as we have been fighting against them and organising villagers to rebel against them. Yesterday, their target was my family and since my brother and my son were there in that function they were clear targets for them

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Chief Minister Madhu Koda roundly condemned the attack.

"This is an act of cowardice and frustration. We condemn this act," said Koda.

The government announced Rs 1 lakh compensation for the families of all those who were killed.

This has been the biggest civilian killing in the state since it was carved out from Bihar in November 2000. Maoist rebels are active in 18 of the 24 districts of the state.

Nearly 950 people, including 310 security personnel, have been killed in Jharkhand in Maoist related violence.

Chronology of Naxal attacks in recent years
September 7, 2007	Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Janardhan Reddy and his wife N Rajyalakshmi, escaped unhurt while three Congress workers were killed in a Maoist attack in Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh.
July 10, 2007	Naxalites attacked a police team with light machine guns and mortar bombs in a dense forest area of Chhattisgarh, killing at least 24 security personnel.
July 1, 2007	Nine persons, including five policemen, were killed and as many were wounded as CPI-Maoist rebels carried out simultaneous attacks on a police station and an outpost in Sasaram in Bihar's Rohtas district and fled with arms and ammunition.
April 28, 2007	Five security personnel were killed in a landmine blast triggered by Maoist rebels in Michgaon village of Kanker district, about 175 km south of Raipur in Chattisgarh
Mar 16, 2007	Maoists attacked a police post in the remote jungles of in Rani Bodli in Chattisgarh with gunfire, hand grenades and gasoline bombs, killing at least 49 people
March 5, 2007	Naxalites shot dead Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's Lok Sabha MP Sunil Kumar Mahato. Two of his bodyguards and a party colleague were also killed in the attack when they were witnessing a football match organised to mark Holi at a village in Jamshedpur in Jharkhand
July 17, 2006	At least 25 people were killed and 80 injured, 32 of them seriously, while about 250 people were missing following an attack by some 800 armed Naxalites in Dantewada district of Chattisgarh
February 9, 2006	Eight Central Industrial Security Force personnel were killed and eight others injured when Naxalites raided a godown of the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and took away explosives from a village near Bailadila in Jagdalpur in Chattisgarh
1 March 2005	In a major attack, Naxalites shot dead eight villagers and blew up a forest rest house, injuring a CRPF constable in Andhra Pradesh
November 13, 2005	Hundreds of activists of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) attacked the police lines in south Bihar's Jehanabad district