Maoists blow up police stations in Orissa

“Combing operation is on to flush out ultras. Koraput District Superintendent of Police (SP) and Range DIG have reached the spot,” Chief Minister Navin Patnaik said adding the SOG jawans were engaged in the operation.

The ultras,opposing the setting up of a battalion anti-naxal force Cobra at Sunabeda in Koraput district,caught the police personnel unawares blowing up police buildings and torching their vehicles,sources said.

The ultras first struck at the police station at Baipariguda late last night,police said.

“The five police personnel posted there were forced to surrender at gun point before ultras exploded bombs to blow up the police station building,” a police personnel present during the attack told PTI over phone.

Additional police force could arrive only this morning though the place of the first attack was barely 25 km from Jeypore town,police said.

Movement of security forces during the night was affected due to obstacles put up by extremists on the roads.

““The Maoists laid siege to the area for about two hours and triggered three explosions in Baipariguda police station premises,” DIG (South-West range) Sanjeev Kumar Panda told PTI over phone,adding that the attackers did not cause any harm to the police personnel.

Though there was no sophisticated weapon at the police station located on Jeypore-Malkangiri road,the heavily armed ultras took away three country-made guns which had earlier been seized by the police.

They also set ablaze two jeeps and three motor-cycles and smashed a very high frequency transmitter to snap communication links with the police station,Panda said.

Maoists also blew up a police outpost at Ramgiri,about 30 km from Baipariguda,after driving out two police personnel present. On their way back,the ultras also blew up another police station at Machhkund.

While leaving the police station at Baipariguda,the attackers left a note at the site opposing moves to set up a Cobra battalion in Koraput district,the police said.

They alleged that innocent people were being harassed by the security forces in the name of anti-naxal operations.

Additional police force have been sent from Koraput district headquarter to intensify the operation. The ultras were supected to have laid landmines,forcing security forces to adopt utmost caution,police said.