Armed Maoists attacked a stone crusher unit of a private builder and set afire 15 of its vehicles in Nuapada district on Saturday night.
Over 40 rebels from Bargarh-Mahasamund division of the CPI(Maoist) came to Baleshbahali village of Nuapada district where building firm DB is working on a canal extension project. The Maoists torched eight dumpers, five tractors, a trawler and a van, Khariar sub-divisional police officer S B Satpathy said. The Maoists put up posters at the site protesting against ‘low wages being paid to the workers’. Posters warning against the supply of water from the Tikhali irrigation project to industrial units in the area were also put up.
In a similar attack on another construction company in October last year, Maoists had set fire to 27 vehicles of construction firm ARSS in a village in Sambalpur district. During the attack, the rebels had taken around 80 employees of the construction company hostage.
This latest attack adds to a list of attacks carried out by Maoists since last year. On May 23 last year, nine policemen from Chhattisgarh including an additional SP were killed in a Maoist ambush inside Sunabeda wildlife sanctuary on the Orissa-Chhattisgarh border. On November 20 last year, Maoists stabbed the chairman of the Nuapada Panchayat Samiti, Sunil Dewangan, inside the wildlife sanctuary accusing him of being a police informer.
In another incident, BSF jawans and local police demolished a Maoist camp and seized weapons in Similipadar forest in Malkangiri district. The police seized three guns, some explosives and fuse wires used in landmines as well as volumes of Maoist literature.
23 Maoists surrender in Bihar district Muzaffarpur: Twenty-three Maoists surrendered before the police with arms and ammunition in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district in the presence of a large number of locals. They were sent to the district jail. Tirhut Division Commissioner S K Negi said the administration would provide assistance to the surrendered Maoists under the ‘Naxal Reform Package’.
