Maoists set bus on fire, loot passengers in Bastar

About 100 Maoist guerrillas set ablaze a private bus on a national highway in the restive Bastar region of Chhattisgarh and also looted some of the passengers, police said on Friday.

The Maoist rebels stopped a Hyderabad-bound private bus, which had started from Kirandul town, on National Highway 221 close to the Andhra Pradesh border, about 500 km south of the state capital here.

"At Manikonta village, insurgents forcibly stopped a private bus and asked passengers to come out of the vehicle and then set the bus on fire," Rahul Sharma, Dantewada district superintendent of police, said.

After that, cash, jewelleries and laptops were looted from the passengers. The victims have registered a case at the Errabore police station.

Private bus owners have suspended services from Kirandul to Hyderabad to protest the incident.