Bijapur: Naxalites on Thursday torched a truck in Chhattisgah's Bijapur district, where a senior Maoist leader was killed in an encounter with security forces earlier in the day, police said.
The incident occurred at around 9 pm between Karremarka and Bhairamgarh in the district, a police statement said, quoting eyewitnesses,
Around half a dozen Naxalites dressed as civilians stopped the truck on a national highway and asked its occupants to alight. They then poured petrol on the vehicle, belonging to a private transporter, and set it ablaze, police said.
However, movement of traffic on the road remained unaffected, said the statement.
Maoists committed the arson in frustration after the killing of their central committee member Sudhakar in an encounter with security forces, they said.
Police personnel were rushed to the spot and combing operations to apprehend the Naxalites were launched, he added.
Senior Maoist leader Narasimha Chalam alias Sudhakar, who had a bounty of Rs 40 lakh on his head in Chhattisgarh, was killed in an encounter with security forces in the forest of Indravati national park in Bijapur on Thursday.
The killing of Sudhakar, a member of the Maoists' Central Committee, comes a fortnight after CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju (70) was neutralised by security forces in the Bastar region, dealing a severe blow to the banned outfit.