Maoists kill cop in Chhattisgarh

Kanker, May 13 (IANS) A policeman was shot dead Sunday by Maoist guerrillas in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Kanker district, police said.

The incident took place barely 150 metres away from a police station in the Pakhanjore area, around 280 km south of state capital Raipur.

'A few armed Maoists sprayed bullets on assistant sub-inspector D.K. Sinha in a weekly market at Pakhanjore,' an officer at police headquarters here told IANS.

He added that Sinha succumbed to his injuries about 30 minutes later as no one mustered the courage to take him to the hospital or call the police.

Kanker is one of the seven districts in the 40,000 sq km Bastar region where Maoists run a parallel government since the late 1980s.