Labourer killed by Maoists in Angul

Odisha Channel Bureau Angul, Feb 13: The industrial district of Angul has witnessed the first case of Maoist killing in a tribal village of Pattamunda under Pallahara police station.According to the police, around 15 armed Maoists descended in the village located at around 20 km away from Pallahara town Thursday night and axed one Samuel Bhadra (50) to death.They fled the spot leaving some Maoist posters stating that Bhadra was killed for being a police informer.According to a villager, at about 8 pm a group of armed Maoists including four women came to the house of Bhadra and asked him to come out.When he came out then they locked his wife and two daughters inside the house.They then charged him of being the informer of police who killed one of their leaders in that region on his information.The Maoists killed him with an axe and left some posters before melting into nearby forest.According to villagers, Bhadra, a tribal Christian and daily wage earner, migrated from Jharkhand about 20 years ago and started living in the hamlet along with his family.Angul Superintendent of Police Rajesh Pandit Uttam Rao visited the spot on Friday morning along with special operation group (SOG) personnel.The SOG began combing operations in the nearby forest areas.Denying that Bhadra was an informer of police, Rao said: ‘He was never been our informer.He was a migrant from Jharkhand about some years and settled here with his family.It was a handiwork of Maoist group of Susil of Kalinganagar division who being desperate has done this killing to show his presence.This is out of frustration.However we are alert and will do everything to keep these ultras at bay”.The encounter between police and Left wing extremists in Chhendipada jungle in June last, suspected Maoist abduction of two workers of a contractual agency in Pallahara in October last, and now the killing have clearly established the Maoist presence in Angul.In Nagira area of Pallahara boarding Keonjhar, there were movement of Maoists some years ago prompting police to launch combing operations.However, with decimation of the network in Keonjhar, their appearance in Nagira was no more for some years giving some relief to Angul police.But in last October, two workers working near Sibida were abducted by armed suspected Maoists four days after they came from Rourkela.Police then denied any Maoists link, but there was report that they were released after money was paid to the Maoist abductors.