Unleashing fresh violence, Maoists killed two persons suspecting them to be police informers at Kiang village under Mathili police limits on Thursday. They also torched a cell-phone transmission tower in the village.
Armed Maoists had abducted three villagers from Kiang village recently and killed two of them while releasing another Padmanav Pujari, Malkangiri SP Akhileswar Singh said.
The bodies of Gopi Pujari, a shop-keeper, and Hatiram Pujari were found on a forest road on Thursday morning with their throats slit. The bodies also bore gun-shot marks.
While Gopi had been kidnapped from a village festival venue on April 19, the other two were abducted on April 22. The victims were suspected to have been killed on Wednesday night when over 50 armed Maoists had stormed into the area and set afire the tower of a private mobile phone service provider.
Maoists from neighbouring Chhattisgarh are suspected to be behind the killing. Following the incident, the borders with Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have been sealed.
Kiang village which shares its border with Chhattisgarh has turned into a safe hideout for the rebels who after committing crime in Odisha easily escape into the neighbouring district and vice-versa.
This is the third such incident in Malkangiri this year. On April 4, Maoists killed a village council chief in Kurmanur area of the district. Another man was killed by the rebels in a village close to Andhra Pradesh border on January 16.
Maoist Surrenders
Rayagada: A 17-year-old female Maoist cadre of Bansadhara Maoist division Bharati surrendered before the Bisham Cuttack police on Thursday.
Bharti had joined the Maoist outfit in 2009 after being motivated by Maoist leader Azad. She claimed that some women cadres of the outfit were harassed by senior Maoist cadres. “Though I complained about this to leaders Nikhil, Bunty and Manoj, they did not pay any heed following which, I decided to surrender,” she told police.
Police said she will be rehabilitated as per the State Government’s Maoist surrender policy.