It was the same road which the carcade of Chhattisgarh Congress leaders took on May 25 to reach Sukma for addressing a public gathering under the Parivartan Yatra rally. There was no change in the returning route and we repeated the same path, said Shiv Narayan Dwivedi and Chauleshwar Chandrakar who are the survivors of Darbha massacre which left State Congress Committee president Nand Kumar Patel, his son Dinesh Patel, Mahendra Karma and 23 others dead.
“After addressing a gathering at Keshlur in the evening, Congress leaders’ carcade with 32 vehicles was passing Jeeram Ghat in Darbha Valley around 4:15 pm where Maoists attacked on the carcade and gunned down 25 persons,” narrated witness Dr Dwivedi talking to the mediapersons on Friday.
He further said that he was the sufferer of this gory attack and had even talked to about 40 Maoists while the incident was happening. “The carcade of the Congress was crossing Darbha Valley at speed of about 90 to 100 km per hour and had reached Jeeram Ghat turning. Suddenly the entire carcade came to screeching halts with explosion sound, gunshots and people screams scorching the sky as Maoist hiding in mountain opened indiscriminate firing on the carcade,” said Dr Dwivedi.
The Maoists were shouting to surrender or everybody will be killed, Dr Dwivedi said, “I was lying on the road with bullet in my right forearms and I saw Mahendra Karma lying safe on my side.
“Suddenly Naxalites reached near the car calling name of Mahendra Karma and Nand kumar Patel. By this time they (Congressmen) decided to surrender and Mahendra Karma stood up with around 10 people surrounding him and asked Naxals to take him but stop the firing. Naxalites then entered into forests along with others and after walking about 100 meters they separated Karma (from rest of Congressmen) and killed him,” Dr Dwivedi said. He then told Naxals that he is a doctor and had served Bastar. Naxals then talked to him for about one hour and also saw his identity card. The Maoists then took a zerox copy of his card and warned him never to return Bastar or he may be killed.
He claimed that the Press release handed to media by Maoists taking responsibility of the deadly attack is false. He raised suspicion that the attack was pre-planned and claimed that there could be possibility of contract killing so the matter should be investigated by CBI.
