DM Monitoring
New Delhi: Some villagers were allegedly beaten up by police personnel in Teklagudam village in Chhattisgarh during an encounter between Maoists and security forces on Saturday which killed and injured dozens of security forces personnel, the local media reported.
Teklagudam village was the first site of the gunbattle between Maoists and security forces on Saturday, sources told the daily. Then the Maoists chased the police personnel outwards – towards Jhiragaon, which is hardly 1 km from Teklagudam, where 14 bodies of security personnel were found on Sunday.
One of the villagers, Mangdu Barse, 20, told the daily when he had ventured out of his house to pick forest produce on Saturday, he was allegedly beaten up by police personnel with rods and gun butts. He said he was one of the few who stayed back in the village till late.
Bastar inspector general P. Sundarraj told the local media he would look into the allegations. “We have no information of villagers being targeted, our forces were engaged in combat with Maoists. I will look into the allegations.”
Another resident of Teklagudam, Bhima Korsa, 29, told the Indian Express, “When we saw the police personnel approach, we locked ourselves in our houses.
Those who didn’t get beaten up. After a few hours, we heard the noise of heavy firing and we fled.”
