RAIPUR/BHOPAL: Maoists pulled off an audacious kidnapping of the district collector of Sukma in southern Chhattisgarh on Saturday, killing two of his bodyguards when they tried to stop them. The collector, Alex Paul Menon, was meeting a group of villagers for a government outreach programme.

A 2006 batch IAS officer, Menon was tracked by the Maoists as he reached Manjipara village in tribal Bastar region on Saturday afternoon, according to the police.

"Around 90 Maoists reached the spot and shot dead two personal security officers of the collector before taking him into the nearby forest," said additional director general of police Ram Niwas. The rebels, he said, spared the sub-divisional magistrate S K Vaidya who was present in Manjipara village.

The collector was abducted even as uncertainty looms over the fate of BJD MLA Jhina Hikaka, who is being held captive by Orissa Maoists and days after the Supreme Court questioned the Orissa government on the release of Maoists from prisons in exchange of hostages.

"The collector was abducted at gunpoint between 4.30 and 5pm. The Maoists apparently waited for him for over an hour at the function in the village as a part of the government's "gram swaraj abhiyan" - a village contact programme," a government spokesman told TOI from Raipur.

It is suspected that the rebels have taken the collector deep inside the forests of Kerlapal, some of which are suspected to be heavily mined by the Maoists.

A police team led by DSP Abhishek Shandilya has launched a search operation to try and rescue the collector, said Ram Niwas. A special team was formed to join the effort after director general of police A M Nawani held an emergency meeting with other police brass.

Chief minister Raman Singh said every effort will be made to secure the collector's release, even as home minister P Chidambaram spoke to Singh assuring his administration of all help from the Centre. Sources said Chidambaram also called for a report on the incident, which is being seen as reflecting Maoists' anxiety to dispel any perception that successful strikes by security forces may have weakened them.

Menon is viewed by his peers as an enthusiastic officer who took his job as the district collector of Sukma, considered to be the worst-affected district in the country, as a mission. He had gone to a place near Keralapal on motorcycle along with others as part of gram swaraj abhiyan. The exercise aims at improving basic services in Sukma since it was felt it needed special administrative attention.

Sukma was carved out of Naxal-prone Dantewada early this year. It is a Maoist hotbed and it's here that the rebels have periodically unleashed major attacks against security forces, including the CRPF, after the tribals' anti-Naxalite campaign, 'Salwa Judum', began in June 2005.

This is the first time that Maoists in Bastar, under the CPI (Maoist) special zonal committee of Dandakaranya, have abducted a senior administrative official although there have been instances of abduction of police constables.

Just five days ago, the rebels had abducted a village patel, a constable and three other villagers from Kerlapal region.

Major parts of Sukma are under the so-called liberated zone of Dandakaranya where there is little presence of civil administration. The government acknowledges it is a region dominated by the Maoists.

Sukma borders Orissa's Malkangiri district from where the Andhra Pradesh-based rebels had abducted the then collector R Vineel Krishna in February 2011.