Raipur: Maoist rebels have killed a Congress leader and a tribal special police officer (SPO) in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, police said on Saturday. A group of armed Maoists axed to death local Congress leader Gangaram Kohrami, (50), late on Friday, a police official said. In a separate incident, on Friday morning, guerrillas abducted two SPOs Nagesh and Suresh who were working at the Basaguda police station. They were kidnapped while on their way back to Basaguda from Bijapur and were taken to a densely forested area. Police recovered Nagesh's body while Suresh is still missing.

The Chhattisgarh government has recruited around 5,000 SPOs from local tribes on a monthly salary of Rs 1,500 to act as informers and assistants to the main police force. A few have been given weapons and training but most are armed only with traditional bows and arrows.

Chhattisgarh is one of states hard hit by Maoist violence and about 50,000 people, mostly tribals, have settled in over a dozen government-run relief camps in the southern Bastar region, due to threats from the rebels ever since tribals launched a civil militia movement, Salwa Judum, in June 2005 that was later supported by the state government. (IANS)