Three jawans, one civilian killed in Maoist ambush in Odisha

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar, Aug 26: A day after Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik claimed in the State Assembly “the law and order situation in the State during the year 2015 has remained peaceful barring a few stray incidents”, the Maoists attacked a patrol of the paramilitary force and triggered a landmine blast in Malkangiri district killing BSF personnel and a civilian and injuring six others early on Wednesday.According to official source, a patrol of the 104th battalion of BSF was near its Janbai base in the cut-off area in Malkangiri district when Maoists attacked it with a landmine blast and firing at around 6.30 AM.At least three personnel, including an Assistant Sub-inspector, Head Constable and Constable were killed in the ambush.Company commander Assistant Commandant Ashok Kumar is among the six injured.The injured persons were soon rushed to the district headquarters hospital at Malkangiri town.They were likely to be air-lifted to Visakhapatnam for treatment by evening.BSF and CRPF battalions are deployed in the region for conducting anti-naxal operations.Meanwhile, an encounter between security personnel and Maoists was reported from Baipariguda area of neighbouring Koraput district.The incident occurred at around 10.30 am.But no report about any loss of life was reported till 2 pm.While replying to an adjournment motion moved by opposition Congress in the Assembly on Tuesday, Patnaik had further claimed that “the overall crime situation in the State has remained under control during the year till 30.06.2015”.Countering the charges made by opposition Congress and BJP over the deteriorating law and order situation and police excesses on the people at several places in the State, Patnaik had further claimed that “a series of steps have been taken to upgrade the operational capacity of the police force and the security infrastructure in the Maoist affected areas to resolutely deal with the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) problem”.“The operational strategy is being fine tuned from time to time depending on the ground situation,” Patnaik had said in the Assembly while replying to the issues raised by the opposition during the debate on the law and order situation in the State.