Hit hard by police, Odisha Maoists target ‘informers’

BHUBANESWAR : With their influence and dominance shrinking due to the onslaught by security forces, Maoists in Odisha continued to vent frustration on civilians, killing a tribal in Malkangiri district Saturday night at the end of the week-long People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) celebrations.

A group of armed rebels slit the throat of Sitaram Khilo of Bada Tekpadar village under Ralegada grampanchayat, branding him a police informer.

The PLGA week has been observed since 2000 to remember the killing of three of its central committee members in Koyyuru forest area in Karimnagar district on December 2, 1999. The organisation’s concentration during the week is generally on recruiting new members.

Khilo’s death is 15th such in Odisha this year, when Maoists are on back foot in areas where they once had near-total domination.

SITARAM KHILO’S DEATH IS 15TH SUCH IN ODISHA THIS YEAR, WHEN MAOISTS ARE ON BACK FOOT IN AREAS WHERE THEY ONCE HELD NEARTOTAL DOMINATION

Of these, 10 were killed in Malkangiri alone, where a longawaited bridge connecting over 150 villages is on the verge of completion by February 2018.

The bridge over Janbai river would give a massive boost to the security forces to enter the bastion where Maoists had abducted a former collector in 2011.

Two days ago, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had told the Assembly that there was fall in Maoist violence in 2017. Compared to 68 incidents the previous year, there were only 47 violent incidents until last month, having cliamed lives of 14 civilians and 9 security personnel.

On October 6, Maoists beat a tribal, Dambaru Nayak, to death in Kurub village (Malkangiri), accusing him of being an informer, a claim police had rejected. Nayak, a Maoist sympathiser, had severed his ties with the rebels around two years ago. That same month, Maoists had shot dead a boatman in a cutoff area on similar claims.

In August this year, the rebels slit the throat of a village sarpanch in Koraput district and set his bike and three vehicles on fire. The killed another tribal in Borigi panchayat that same month. In October, Maoists shot dead a Gaon Sathi, who helps with NREGS-related works in a village of Kandhamal district.

Patnaik told the Assembly that there has been a substantial improvement in the Left-Wing Extremism in Odisha.

“People do not support violent activities and the LWE cadres have no local base. Our problem is mostly caused by infiltration from Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand as well as from Andhra Pradesh,” the chief minister said.