Irate villagers including women on Sunday held demonstration in front of Gangloor police station and pelted stones and raised slogans against the police in protest against killings of civilians in an encounter between the police and the Maoist insurgents at village Arasameta in the district on intervening night on May17-18.
The encounter led to killing of eight civilians including three minors besides critically injuring five others.
Reports reaching here on Sunday said that there were no trace of 22 other civilian villagers after the encounter between the police and the insurgents.
‘There is not a single Naxal among those killed in the encounter,’ agitated chiefs of the affected Arasameta village, Taram lakhu and Taram Budhru stated.
They further added: ‘ We were on our way to Pandum on a ‘Yatra’ (journey) when the police personnel attacked us and randomly opened fire . While some of the villagers during the firing lay down in fear to escape death, another 22 fled the village.’
The firing killed eight villagers including three children on the spot and the confusion also led to a constable getting shot in the mutual firing among the police personnel, they maintained.
Both the village chiefs alleged that the firing had critically injured children Renu (10 yrs), Poonam Samlu (15 yrs) including Taram Chotu, Taram Ayatu and Soni Taram.
They had been admitted in a hospital in Bijapur.
‘The police personnel had forcibly taken one villager and is branding him as a ‘Naxal’, both the village chiefs alleged.
Meanwhile, the bodies of the eight civilian villagers had been handed over to their respective families after post mortem was conducted.