Maoists kill watchman, torch 5 vehicles in Kandhamal district

Maoists have gunned down a watchman at a road construction site in Odisha's Kandhamal district suspecting him to be a police informer, police said.

The armed Maoists struck at a contractor's camp at Patiamba, about 18 km from here, under the jurisdiction of Phulbani Sadar police station late on Saturday night, said Kandhamal Superintendent of Police, Prateek Singh.

They also set ablaze three tractors, a road roller and a truck engaged in construction of a road under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

The ultras then took away the watchman, Rabindra Mallick, from the camp to the nearby forest and shot him dead. Before leaving the area, the Maoists put up some leaflets near the site, the SP said.

The leaflets mentioned that the attack was made by Kandhamal-Kalahandi-Boudh-Nayagarh (KKBN) division of the banned CPI (Maoist). It was stated in the leaflets that the watchman was killed as they suspected him to be an informer of the police, Singh said.

Combing operation has been intensified by the security forces in the aftermath of the incident, he said.

At least four Maoists, including a woman cadre, had been killed in the same area in May last year in an exchange of fire with the police.