Maoists struck in Orissa, Bihar and West Bengal early on Wednesday, killing six people, including three security personnel.
They also blew up a toll plaza in Bihar’s Gaya district using dynamites and looted 16 weapons and Rs3 lakh. Two people, including a security guard, were killed in the attack. The violence occurred as the 48-hour bandh called by Maoists in seven states to protest ‘Operation Green Hunt’ drew to a close.
Three policemen were killed and 10 injured, four of them critically, in a fierce encounter in Orissa’s Gajapati district. The critically injured have been shifted to Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh for treatment.
Police said acting on a tip-off about movement of ultras, a team of security personnel, including the elite anti-Naxal Special
Operations Group (SOG) and state police, launched a combing operation in the Ambajhari forest area in the early hours. But the Maoists were prepared and started firing indiscriminately, killing three SOG jawans on the spot and injuring six.
The dead have been identified as Sanjeet K Tirkey, Balram Pradhan and Deepak Sonbhoy. Maoist causalties, if any, could not be ascertained.
In another attack in nearby Malkangiri district, around 200 Maoists blew up a pump house and control room near the pipeline of a private industrial house meant for movement of minerals in Chitrakonda area. They also blew up three mobile towers in Southern Orissa.
In Bihar, Maoists killed two people, including a private security guard and looted 16 weapons, including a rifle, 12 double-barrel guns, three regular guns and 100 rounds of ammunition, from a government toll plaza at Mahapur in Gaya district.
DIG (Magadh range) Anupama Nilekar said over 200 heavily armed Maoists arrived at the plaza spraying bullets and hurling bombs.
