Kandhamal encounter: Cong central team to visit Gumudumaha

A Congress team, formed by party president Sonia Gandhi, will embark on a fact-finding tour of Gumudumaha in Odisha's tribal-dominated Kandhamal district where five persons were killed during an anti-Maoist operation on July 8.
The five-member team will try to ascertain the circumstances in which five villagers, including two women and a child, were killed in the forest area, said Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Prasad Harichandan.
Harichandan said the team, constituted by Gandhi, comprise central party leaders V Kishore Chandra Deo, Jairam Ramesh, Arun Oraon, Vincent Pala and K H Muniyappa.
As the incident in Kandhamal drew widespread criticism and condemnation, a Congress delegation, led by the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Narasingha Mishra, had visited the village and interacted with the family members of the victims.

The party has held the BJD government in the state responsible for the killing of innocent villagers.
Party leaders led by the OPCC president had also gheraoed Baliguda police station for two days and held a demonstration demanding a High Court monitored judicial inquiry by a sitting judge into the tragedy.
Under attack over the incident, the state government has ordered a probe into the incident by a Special Investigating Team (SIT). A judicial inquiry has also been ordered into it.