Chhattisgarh: Naxals kill police informer in Dantewada

Raipur: A 20-year-old police informer, who had also helped in the setting up of a police camp, was killed by Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district, a senior official said on Wednesday.

The incident took place on Tuesday night when Umesh Markam, who was working as ‘Gopniya Sainik’ (secret police informer), was coming from his native Tetam village under Katekalyan police station limits to Dantewada town, he said.

A small action team of the Katekalyan area committee of Maoists attacked Markam with sharp-edged weapons. Markam died on the spot, Dantewada Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava said.

After being alerted, a police team reached the spot on Wednesday morning and the body was shifted for postmortem, he said.

Markam had been instrumental in supporting authorities in setting up a police camp last year in Tetam village, located around 400 km away from capital Raipur.

“After the camp was operationalised in December last year, he started working as ‘Gopniya Sainik’,” Pallava said.

These secret informers are appointed by district police at local level for anti-Naxal operations, specially for gathering intelligence inputs.

As per preliminary information, the team of Naxals that attacked Markam was being led by Pradeep, an area committee member of the outlawed outfit, the official said.

Security forces have launched a search operation in the area to trace the culprits, he added.