Raipur:
A team from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) have reached Raipur to probe a suspected Maoist attack that killed 24 people, including top Congress leaders, in Chhattisgarh's Jagdalpur district two days ago. RPN Singh, Minister of State, Home, said that the agency will probe the lapses in security and "punishment will be meted out to anyone who has led to such kind of tragic incident."
Here are the 10 latest developments in the case:
Nand Kumar Patel, the Chhattisgarh Congress chief, who was found dead on Sunday morning, was cremated in his village in Raigarh today. Mr Patel's son Dinesh was also killed in the attack. (Read)
Former Home Minister of Chhattisgarh Mahendra Karma, who organised the anti-Naxalite "Salwa Judum" movement in the state, was also killed in the attack. He was also cremated in his village in Dantewada district today. (Track live updates)
The lack of a comprehensive security plan and a neglect of safety procedures allowed the well-armed attackers to massacre 24 people and injure 32 others, a preliminary government review reveals. (Read)
At about 3:30 pm on Saturday, around 250 suspected Naxals struck a convoy of 25 cars carrying the Congress leaders and others, who were returning from the party's parivartan rally in Sukma. They triggered landmine blasts and then rained bullets at the convoy from vantage points on hillocks. (Read)
The two dozen odd security personnel traveling with convoy returned fire but soon ran out of ammunition. The suspected alleged Maoists then surrounded the convoy, took away the mobile phones of the leaders and then shot them in cold blood. (Read)
Former union minister and senior Congress leader Vidya Charan Shukla was critically injured in the attack. He was flown to a hospital in Gurgaon near Delhi, where his condition is reportedly stable. The 84-year-old Congress leader has three bullet wounds, two in his abdomen and one in his leg. (Read)
The BJP today blamed the Congress for 'politicising' the issue. "The Prime Minister should have refrained from playing a blame game," BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy said. The PM had yesterday asked "who should be blamed" for the tragedy. (Read)
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi visited the people injured in the attack in a hospital in Raipur yesterday. The PM has announced compensations of Rs 5 lakh each for the families of those who lost their lives in the ambush.
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi flew to Raipur late on Saturday night. "This is not an attack on the Congress; it is an attack on democracy," he said.
The Congress had called for a bandh in the state on Sunday. There was a shutdown in Raipur over fears of violence. Protests were reported from several places and petrol pumps were reportedly forced to close down.
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