Bijapur | Naxalites hacked a 36-year-old man to death in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, suspecting him of being a police informer, an official said on Wednesday.

Dashru Ram Oyam was murdered on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday in Benchram village under Jangla police station limits, the police official said.

A group of Naxalites barged into his house and dragged him outside. They then killed him with axes after accusing him of being a police informer, he said.

After being alerted about the murder in the morning, a police team was sent to the spot and Oyam's body was shifted to a hospital for the post-mortem, he said.

A search operation has been launched in the area to track down the killers, he added.

With this incident, 37 people have lost their lives in Maoist violence in the Bastar region, comprising seven districts, including Bijapur, so far this year.

On September 1, two villagers were killed by Naxalites in neighbouring Sukma.

In recent months, security forces have been making significant inroads into areas that were once Naxal strongholds.

The outlawed CPI (Maoist), in a purported statement that went viral on Tuesday on social media, has announced a temporary suspension of its armed struggle to facilitate peace talks, but has asked the government to declare a one-month ‘ceasefire' and halt security operations to initiate the process.

The Chhattisgarh government had said it was verifying the authenticity of the statement