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Raipur: Banned outfit CPI(Maoist) on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the massacre of Congress leaders in Bastar region and demanded immediate suspension of all operations against it across the country.
"The aim behind this attack was to kill Mahendra Karma and other Congress leaders. During the two-hour long gun battle between commanders of CPI (Maoist) and security forces, some innocent people and low-level Congress workers were killed.
"They were not our enemies but they lost their lives. We express regret over their death and offer our condolence to the bereaved families," said Gudsa Usendi, spokesperson of 'Dandkaranya Special Zonal Committee' of CPI (Maoist), in a statement.
He accused slained leaders Karma, architect of Salwa Judum (people's movement against naxalism) and Nand Kumar Patel, Pradesh Congress Chief of corruption and implementing anti-people policies in Chhattisgarh.
The outfit accused senior Congress leader V C Shukla, who sustained serious injuries in the attack and at present undergoing treatment in a hospital in Gurgaon, of playing an "active role" in framing pro-industrialist measures in the state.
"Karma, who has been called a tribal leader, is from a feudal family of Manjhi caste. His family has been traditional oppressors of the tribals," Usendi said in the statement seeking to justify the killing.
Twenty seven people including the PCC chief and his son were killed and 32 others, including Shukla, were injured in Saturday's naxal attack in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, considered as hot-bed of left-wing extremists.
