DANTEWADA: Grieving villagers whose relatives were killed by a Maoist landmine attack in remote central India hit out on Wednesday at local officials they say have brought them into the frontline of a worsening conflict.

Maoist insurgents in Chhattisgarh state set off a landmine under a truck on Tuesday as members of the government-backed Salwa Judum (March for Peace) group were returning from an anti-Maoist rally, killing at least 50 people and wounding another 20.

“The (state) government has killed my all three sons, not the Maoists,” wailed 52-year-old Sulekha Banu, who has refused to receive the dead body of her youngest son while those of her other two children remain missing.

Last year, the local Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party state government set up and started funding the Salwa Judum to counter the growing influence of Maoists in the state, especially among poor tribesmen. It has also started arming some villagers.

The blast took place in the heavily forested Dantewada district, 500 km (300 miles) south of Raipur, the state capital. All the dead and wounded came from impoverished tribal communities.

It was one of the biggest attacks in 30 years of leftist violence in India. Local residents and officials say 43 bodies — some badly mutilated by the powerful blast — were handed back to relatives by early Wednesday. But witnesses to the blast said several bodies had been buried in nearby forests.

“The state government has to tell me where it has dumped the bodies of my two sons,” Banu told officials in Arabore village.

Maoist rebels, who operate in at least nine Indian states, mainly in the east and south of the country, have stepped up attacks in the past year, targeting police and government sympathisers.

The guerrillas, who claim to be fighting for millions of India’s poor peasants and landless labourers, number around 9,300, according to official estimates.

“We are losing four or five tribal people almost every day in Dantewada due to Naxal (Maoist) violence for supporting the police,” 48-year-old villager Orchha told Reuters, blaming police for failing to offer protection.

“The government has left us at the mercy of the guerrillas.”

The state administration announced it would give Rs200,000 in compensation to the families of those killed.

Last week, India’s federal home (interior) ministry said that Maoist violence in the country killed at least 892 people in 2005 compared to 653 in 2004.

Security analysts say that New Delhi and state governments are not doing enough to tackle the growing power of the Maoists.

“It is criminal irresponsibility on the government’s part. It has abandoned these people to Maoist depredations,” said Ajay Sahni of the New Delhi-based Institute of Conflict Management.

Politicians fear more killings in Dantewada.

“The state government is using tribesmen as scapegoats in its fight against Maoists,” said local legislator Kawasi Lakhma, of the opposition Congress party.—Reuters