2 Shot Dead by Suspected Maoists in Kandhamal

Phulbani (Reporters Today Bureau): Miscreants suspected to be Maoists gunned down two persons, including the son of a local sarpanch, reckoning them to be police informers, in Kandhamal district, officials said today. The incident took place on Friday night at Guchhaguda village under the Bhandarangi gram panchayat area.

Around 20 assailants barged into the residence of sarpanch of the gram panchayat, Droupadi Patra, dragged her son Bhawani Shankar out of the house and physically assaulted him, police said. Later, his bullet-ridden body was found near the village. The miscreants also shot dead a person named Hemant Patra of the same village, SDPO of Balliguda, Monoj Kumar Pujari, told newsmen.

The gunmen could be members of the Bansadhara- Ghumsar-Nagabali Division of the outlawed CPI (Maoist). Five members of the outfit were killed in an encounter in September last year. The assailants also left a handwritten poster, accusing the two of providing information to police about Maoists. In the poster, they also warned other “informers” to surrender within 15 days or face the same fate. “Odisha DGP Abhay and IG (Intelligence), R K Sharma, will be held responsible for the loss of lives,” they said in the poster.