In two separate attacks, Naxalite guerillas destroyed a tower of Reliance Communications (R-Com) and a telecom exchange of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) in the Kanker district of Chattisgarh.

The incident took place on Saturday night but the officials could get the information only yesterday night, as the whole communication network crocked up in the region, after the attack.

According to police, over 100 heavily-armed insurgents attacked BSNL communications at Kapsi, a sleepy village situated in the thickly forested pocket in Kanker region, about 300 km-south from Raipur.

In the same locality, they set on fire a Reliance (Communications) facility in another attack.

Kapsi is located in the region, which is under the pressure of Maoist insurgents. They kept the villagers hostage at gun-point after assembling them at one point.

Senior police officials in the police headquarters said, “The rebels later set the exchange of state-run telecom major BSNL and tower of Reliance Communications on fire.”

Officials also said that extra police forces were rushed to the Kapsi area, some 300 km south from Raipur, to launch an offensive against insurgents.

Before slipping into the forest, the rebels stayed in the village for over 3 hours. While leaving the village, the rebels cut two trees, which fell on the 33 KV main power supply line of the electricity board that plunged 300 villages into darkness.

Sources said power supply was restored yesterday evening.

However, both the telecom companies refused to reveal the details of the loss and said an assessment was on. They were not even in a position to state when the service would be restored.

Sources also said that over 1,000 mobile subscribers and 200 telephone subscribers were affected by the attack.

Maoists have killed more than 1,100 persons in the Bastar region since 2004 including 726 civilians.