Three villagers were killed by Naxalites in a village in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district on the suspicion of being informers of the Maharashtra police, officials said on Thursday.

The Chhattisgarh police in a statement said they have received information about the incident and further details in this regard are being collected.

Citing initial inputs, the police said that Kulle Katlami (35), Manoj Kovachi (22) and Dugge Kovachi (27), all residents of Morkhandi village under Chhotebethiya police station (Kanker) adjoining Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, were murdered by Naxalites on the intervening night of November 1 and November 2.

In pamphlets thrown at the spot, Maoists claimed that the three were acting as informers for C-60, an elite anti-Naxal unit of the Maharashtra police, it said.

Further details in this connection are awaited, it added.

Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a public rally in Kanker town at 3 pm on Thursday as a part of the BJP’s campaign for this month’s polls. A massive security blanket has already been put in place in view of the high-profile visit, officials said earlier.

Kanker district will witness voting in the first phase of the two-phased elections on November 7.

In Bijapur district of the state, a 40-year-old man was killed by Naxalites who accused him of being a police informer, an official said earlier.

Naxalites strangled the man, Muchaki Linga, with a rope on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday and threw his body on the roadside between Galgam and Nadpalli villages in the district, he said.

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