No passengers injured after Naxals set bus on fire in Bijapur district

Naxals torched a bus after asking its passengers to get down in poll-bound Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district Tuesday, a police official said. No passengers were injured in the incident, he said. 

The private bus was on its way to Usoor from Bijapur town when eight Naxals, some of them armed, stopped it near Usoor, around 450 km from Raipur, the official told PTI. 

There were some 35 passengers on the bus. The Naxals asked them to get down and then set it on fire, he said. Security personnel rushed to the spot on receiving information about the incident and a combing operation has been launched to nab the rebels, the official said. 

In another incident in Bijpaur district, a 52-year-old man, abducted by Naxals three days ago, was found killed, the official said. Aaytu Hemla and another person had been abducted on November 3 from village Baddepara in Gangaloor area, he said. Hemla's body was found in the forest near his village Tuesday while the other man was reportedly released, he said. 

As per the preliminary information, Naxals had accused Hemla of being a police informer. He was found strangulated. The official said he had no association with police. 

Naxals have called for a boycott of Assembly elections. Security forces have been finding Maoist posters and banners appealing for poll boycott almost every day in south Bastar. 

Polling in 18 constituencies in eight Naxal-affected districts - Bastar, Kanker, Sukma, Bijapur, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Kondagaon and Rajnandgaon -- will be held on November 12. The remaining 72 constituencies will witness polling on November 20.

(With inputs from agencies.)