Raipur, Nov 22 (IANS) The Chhattisgarh police have begun a probe into a banner put up by suspected Maoists in a village threatening that a legislator of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be killed in a month.
The banner was recovered at Tokapal village, around 20 km from Jagdalpur town, the headquarters of the restive Bastar region.

The banner claimed that Baiduram Kashyap, legislator from Chitrakote in Bastar district, will be killed in a month if the Below Poverty Line families in the area are not allotted rooms in an under-construction panchayat building at Tokapal, Bastar range Inspector General of police T.J. Longkumer told IANS by phone.

The police officer said, “We treat this threat very seriously and have advised the legislator to be alert and keep police informed about his visits so that we can make adequate police arrangements. But police have also begun investigations to find out whether it is a Maoist banner or someone else has done it mischievously.”

According to sources, the threat banner has triggered panic among the 12 legislators of Bastar region - comprising of five districts - Dantewada, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Kanker and Bastar.

In late September, Maoists carried out an attack on family members of BJP leader and Bastar Lok Sabha member Baliram Kashap at a temple in the presence of hundreds of people and killed one of his sons.

The deadly attack had forced legislators of the Bastar region to cancel their public engagements for a week and they also appealed to the district police authorities that their security cover be increased.

Maoists have been running a parallel administration in the interiors of the Bastar region - spread out over about 40,000 sq km - since late 1980s.