Maoists blew up two mobile towers of a private telecom operator in the Gandhamardhan mountain range on Monday night. The tower were in Bargarh’s Purena village and Balangir’s Rengali village. Police could reach the spot only on Tuesday due to security concerns.
SDPO (Padmapur) Parul Gupta said “Last night incident is a desperate attempt by Maoists to divert the minds of people. We have already intensified combing operation to drive them out.” Around 15 Maoists were involved in it, she said.
SDPO (Patnagarh) Sunil Joshi said it was done to create panic among people and disrupt communication in remote areas of Balangir district.
According to him, about 20 armed Maoists came to the village and set the tower on fire. We have deployed additional force and started a probe.
