The bullet-riddled bodies of Chhattisgarh Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son Dinesh, kidnapped by Maoists after an ambush on Saturday, were found along with those of eight others, mainly security personnel, in Jiram valley in Bastar on Sunday morning.
With the recovery of the bodies, the toll in the attack on a convoy of Congress leaders has climbed to 27, police sources said. Thirty-two people have been injured in the attack, DGP Ram Niwas said.
The Maoists had kidnapped Patel and his son Dinesh after attacking the convoy of Congress leaders.
Heavy rains in the area is hampering the operations of the security forces.
Senior Congress leader and founder anti-Maoist militia Salwa Judum Mahendra Karma and former legislator Uday Mudaliar were killed and former union minister V C Shukla critically injured when heavily-armed guerrillas ambushed a convoy of party leaders inside a dense forest in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district.
Saturday's attack came after at least eight tribals, including three children, were allegedly killed by COBRA troopers in Arasameta village in Bijapur district in an anti-Maoist operation on the night of May 17-18.
As the death toll Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, who arrived here in the wee hours, said it was not an attack on Congress but an attack on democracy.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi are all set to visit the state.
The attack took place around 5.30 pm when the Congress convoy, comprising more than 20 cars and ferrying nearly 120 Congress leaders and workers, was on its way from the party's 'Parivartan Rally' in Sukma to Jagdalpur.
While passing through a dense forest, about 50 km from their destination, the convoy found its path blocked by a tree that had been felled by Maoists. A group of around 150 rebels then triggered a blast and began indiscriminate fire.
The personal security officers of the Congress leaders returned the fire but soon ran out of bullets becoming sitting ducks.
Sources said Karma, who had earlier survived quite a few attempts on his life, was surrounded by at least 100 Maoists before he was killed. After carrying out the attack, the Maoists set nearby trees on fire.
Senior home ministry officials convened for a high-level meeting following the attack and sources said additional forces have been rushed to Chhattisgarh.
Sources added that the Central Reserve Police Force, responsible for anti-Maoist operations, was planning an onslaught to flush out the rebels from the jungles fearing more such attacks, with combing operations in the works too.
After the attack, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said: "The fight against Maoists is long. We need to show unity".
But former chief minister Ajit Jogi of the Congress accused the BJP government of not providing adequate security.
"The state government had not provided adequate security for the yatra," Jogi said, and called upon Congress workers to observe state-wide shutdown on Sunday and demand dismissal of the state government.
UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi condemned the incident, terming it an attack on "democratic values".
BJP veteran L.K. Advani called up the Prime Minister and asserted that concerted effort should be made to "tackle Maoism and Naxalism with a heavy hand", a statement from his office said.
Bijapur is one of the seven districts that form a 40,000 sq km Bastar region which is considered a nerve centre of the Maoist activities since the late 1980s.
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