Updated: April 18, 2020 1:07:10 am
A man was killed and another was injured on Friday morning in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district in an episode described by the police as “a possible crossfire with Naxals”-and contested by locals as “unprovoked firing”.
The deceased, 50-year-old Dubba Kanhaiya, suffered a wound in his abdomen, and died en route to a hospital. He, along with other residents of Pusagadi village, had stepped out to collect mahua, a common forest produce in the area, early in the morning.
“We all were trying to hunt some birds and had come near the national highway, close to our homes. We heard the security personnel and they asked us where we were from. One of us responded with our village name and the men started shooting us,” Anganpalli Kishteya, a villager who was with Kanhaiya, wrote in his complaint to the police.
The incident occurred just off the main road connecting Avapalli to Jagargunda in Bijapur, barely 2km from a CRPF camp. “The men had gone looking for mahua when they came across the security forces. The men started firing, without provocation,” another…