Naxalites killed 27 and injured 32 Congress party leaders and workers and security personnel at Durbha who were going back to Jagdalpur after attending an election campaign in Sukuma in Chattisgarh.  Still the number of the dead is to be ascertained as searching operations are on and some are still in hospitals in a serious condition.  An armed battalion of Naxalites way laid at Durbha and executed a planned attack on the Congress party men.  First a felled tree and a truck were used to block the road at Durbha and after the vehicles were stopped second and third vehicle were blasted and immediately the convoy were surrounded by the armed Naxalites to open an indiscriminate fire on them.  

Prominent leaders of the Congress Party that were killed are Mahendra Karma, tribal leader of Congress Party who founded Salwa Judum to fight with the Naxals and Uday Mudaliar.

Injured are Vidya Charan Shukla, senior party leader and Kawasi Lakhma Konta MLA.

Chhattisgarh Congress President Nand Kumar Patel and his son were abducted by Naxals who were found dead later in the search operation.  The search could not be conducted yesterday as it was late night.  Security threat and the locality not suitable for an aerial survey stopped them from taking up the searching operations yesterday night.  

It was a Parivartan Yatra of Congress Party in the State of Chhattisgarh after completion of which hundreds of Congress party men and leaders were coming back in a convoy.

AICC Vice President Rahul Gandhi rushed to the spot on incidence.  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and AICC President Sonia Gandhi are getting ready to visit the place of incident and review the situation.  Rahul Gandhi said that it is an attack on the Democracy but not on Congress Party.

Including Congress Party, several party leaders condemned the inhuman Maoist action in Chhattisgarh.

AW-SriJa