2 min readBhubaneswarJul 26, 2014 02:02 AM IST
First published on: Jul 26, 2014 at 02:02 AM IST
After a lull, Maoists struck in Orissa’s Malkangiri district Thursday night, killing two tribals, including a village headman, branding them as police informers. In April, Maoists had killed a tribal youth in cut-off area of Malknagiri, claiming he was a police informer.
Malkangiri SP Akhileswar Singh told The Indian Express that a group of armed Maoists showed up at the house of Deba Padiami and his neighbour Ganga Madkami in Badliguda village of Kalimela block late on Thursday as they defied their calls to attend their meetings. Police said both Padiami and Madkami had been defying Maoists’ calls for some time. They did not show much support for the Martyrs’ Week observed by the rebels. Padiami was the village headman.
“They were sleeping in their homes when the Maoists came. They were dragged from their homes and shot dead,” said the SP. Police said the retribution was also for silent support the villagers extended to the BSF personnel who had camped 3-4 km away. Though the camp came up over a year ago, for a last couple of months the villagers started supporting the paramilitary personnel.
The killings came a few hours after the state home department in its white paper on the law and order situation claimed that Maoist violence had come down in Orissa. The white paper revealed that 23 Maoists were killed in police encounter while the Maoists killed 29 persons last year, including seven security personnel.
The white paper said the state government has been able to contain Maoist violence in Gajapati, Ganjam, Kandhamal, Keonjhar, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Sambalpur, Mayurbhanj, Deogarh, Sundargarh and Nayagarh districts while the situation in Malkangiri, Koraput, Bolangir, Nuapada, Rayagada, Bargarh, Kalahandi and Nabarangpur districts is under control.
It said police arrested 111 Maoists and Maoist sympathisers while 92 rebels surrendered during the period. In February , Maoists had slit the throat of tribal NGO worker who worked in cut-off area of Malkangiri under Orissa Tribal Empowerment and Livelihood Programme.
Share
