Youth Congress leader burned alive NEW DELHI – Maoist rebels blew up a bus filled with police and civilians Monday as it drove through central India, authorities said. News reports said 40 people were killed in the attack. The attack took place in the state of Chhattisgarh, which has been the site of fierce fighting between the Maoists and government forces in recent months. A passenger bus filled with civilians and police was traveling through the area Monday afternoon when it was hit by a rebel land mine, said Rajender Kumar Vig, a top police official in the area. Amarnath Upadhyaya, another senior police officer, said the front of the bus was destroyed and 40 to 60 people were on board. Police did not have initial casualty figures. The Press Trust of India reported that at least 40 people were killed in the attack. Meanwhile, the rebels have shot and then burnt alive a Youth Congress leader, Hemant Bage, in Jharkhand. The victim was the brother-in-law of sub-divisional officer of Simdega S Bhuiyan. He was on way to his in-laws' place when a group of ultras intercepted his vehicle and shot him dead, sub-divisional police officer (Simdega), Varun Kumar said on Monday. Kumar said the ultras than set the vehicle on fire along with the body of Bage. Police recovered the half burnt vehicle as well as Bage's body on Monday. Police has launched a massive search operation in the area to track down the ultras. Last year, the government announced its “Operation Green Hunt” offensive aimed at flushing the militants out of their forest hide-outs. The Maoists left behind posters warning that there would be more such killings if Operation Green Hunt, the counter-offensive launched against them, was not withdrawn immediately. An ex-Congress MLA, Neol Tirkey of Tamra village was on Sunday threatened by the Maoists. Police recovered posters on Monday from the village cautioning Tirkey not to speak against the Maoists or support Operation Greenhunt and not to carry out development projects. The rebels ambushed a paramilitary patrol last month, killing 76 troops, and kidnapped and killed six villagers over the weekend, alleging they were police informants. The rebels, who have tapped into the rural poor's growing anger at being left out of the country's economic gains, are now present in 20 of the country's 28 states and have an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 fighters, according to India's home ministry.
