GARIABAND: Naxals set on fire at least three machines and a tractor engaged in construction work in an insurgency-hit area of Chhattisgarh's Gariaband district, police said on Thursday.
The incident took place around 6 pm on Wednesday in the remote Pipalkhuta village under Amlipadar police station limits where an anicut (structure built across a stream or river to supply water to fields) of the irrigation department was being built by a private contractor, they said.
As per preliminary information, a group of four-five ultras reached the construction site, located over 200 km from the state capital Raipur, and set ablaze a tractor, a JCB machine and two concrete mixer machines parked there, an official said.
After being alerted, police rushed to the spot, located deep inside a forest bordering Odisha, he said.
The construction contractors in the area had been asked to stop their works for sometime in view of the Peoples' Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) week observed by ultras from December 2 to 8 every year, during which they step up their activities, the official said.
The rebels often pass through the dense forest of Amlipadar area to enter Kalahandi and Nuapada districts of Odisha from Chhattisgarh.
The area has witnessed such an incident of torching by Naxals after a long time, the official said.
In July this year, a man was killed by Naxals in Mainpur area of the district on suspicion of being a police informer.