Centre to `fix responsibility` for Naxal attack

New Delhi: The Centre on Sunday said a high-level inquiry will be conducted into the attack on Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh to find out lapses, if any, in security measures and to fix responsibility.

"Buck has to be stopped somewhere. So many people were killed and injured. We have to take action," Union Minister of State for Home RPN Singh said. Singh, who visit Chhattisgarh to assess the situation in the wake of yesterday`s attack on Congress` `parivartan rally` in Bastar, said, "There will be high-level inquiry to find out if there was any lapse on the part of central security forces or state forces. "Responsibility has to be fixed for this great tragedy." Singh said anyone found guilty of laxity in discharging their duty of providing security to the Congress leaders will not be spared. He said all possible action will be taken to prevent such violence in future. Heavily-armed Maoists ambushed a convoy of Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh`s Bastar district yesterday, killing 27 people including Congress leader Mahendra Karma, ex-MLA Uday Mudliyar, state unit chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son. 32 others, including senior party leader V C Shukla, were injured. Rattled by the incident in poll-bound Chhattisgarh, top leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party Vice President Rahul Gandhi visited the state on Sunday. Asserting that the country will never bow before Naxalism, the Prime Minister said, "We will pursue the perpetrators of this crime with urgency and I can assure the nation that the government is committed to bringing them to justice." PTI