Bastar: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) panchayat member was hacked to death by suspected Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Friday, officials said.
Tirupati Katla, a BJP member of Janpad panchayat, was killed while he was attending a wedding in the district’s Toyanar village, Bijapur superintendent of police (SP) Jitendra Yadav said. The incident took place at around 8pm.
Yadav said that he was stabbed by a sharp weapon soon after leaving the wedding function. He was taken to the district hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, the SP said.
Police said that search operations are on in the area to ascertain the identities of the killers, said the officer. Maoist-hit areas of the state have seen seven BJP leaders killed in the past one year.
Ratan Dubey, the BJP’s Narayanpur district unit vice president, was hacked to death while campaigning in November last year. Birju Taram, a BJP worker, was shot dead in Sarkheda village in October last year. In June, a local BJP leader was killed in the Bijapur district, and in February last year, three BJP leaders were hacked to death allegedly by Maoists in the Bastar division.