Raipur, 9 May: Approx 200 people who are on the way to PM Narendra Modi’s public meeting to be held at Dantewada, Chhattisgarh have been taken into hostage by Maoists.

Before few days, Maoists in Chhattisgarh declared a boycott on the Prime Minister’s visit to Dantewada district. They insisted villagers not to attend this said public meeting for a reason that still unknown. The incident took place in Tongpal near Jiram forest area today where around 200 people were forcefully taken into hostage.

Yesterday during their protest, Maoists chopped some tree to block roads and kept posters and images of both Narendra Modi and Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh. By reacting to this situation, Srichand Sundrani, an official spokesperson from Bharitya Janata Party criticized this act. He told, “This is a cowardly act. The government will never bow to Maoists.”

On the other hand, Bastar Range IG SRP Kalluri said in his report that this activity is not related to PM visit. He said that the Maoists kidnapped some laborers who were working in a development project. They were employed in a bridge construction work. After this case, when the villagers went near Maoists to negotiate, they were afterward taken hostage.

After Rajiv Gandhi, PM Narendra Modi is the first one to visit Dantewada for a development work. He will inaugurate two projects with a total cost of Rs. 24,000 crore. As per the report, these two projects include 140 KM railway line from Raoghat to Jagdalpur. And second one is a steel plant in Dilmili village.