Chhattisgarh unit of the Congress on Friday constituted an 11-member committee to probe the alleged Naxal encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, claiming that all the 17 people killed in the overnight gun battle were not Maoists.
The team headed by Konta MLA Kawasi Lakhma will submit its report to the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee chief Nand Kumar Patel within a week.
Terming the encounter as “fake”, CPCC working president Satyanarayan Sharma said villagers of Kuttguda and Sarnitota were holding a meeting with a group of Naxals to settle a land dispute in their locality when the security forces opened indiscriminate fire on them. “A four-acre land in the locality has been in possession of Naxals for long. The villagers wanted to settle the issue peacefully with the ultras to get back the disputed land patch. But, the security forces suddenly appeared at the site and opened unprovoked fire, killing many innocent tribals,” Mr Sharma said.