Four jawans killed in Odisha Maoist blast

Incident occurred in Koraput district near Patangi

Maoists operating in Odisha’s tribal-dominated Koraput district triggered a landmine blast on Tuesday morning killing four Border Security Force (BSF) jawans while completely destroying the van they were traveling in.

Two other paramilitary force personnel also sustained serious injuries in the incident and have been admitted to hospital.

A report reaching state headquarters from Koraput said the incident occurred on a national highway, near the Patangi area of the backward Maoist-infested district, when the jawans were traveling to Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh from Malkangiri in Odisha. They were to catch a flight to Gujarat for official duty from there.

As the vehicle passed through a culvert on the national highway, the left ultras blasted the landmine killing the four jawans on site. The Odisha Police and other paramilitary forces deployed in Maoist-ridden southern Odisha districts have launched a combing operation in the area immediately after the incident.

This is the first time left-wing ultras triggered a landmine blast on a national highway in any of the Maoist-affected districts in the state. The vehicular traffic between Odisha and Andhra Pradesh came to a grinding halt after the incident. However, sources in Koraput district administration said that efforts were on to restore the traffic on the highway.

The incident assumes significance because it has occurred just days after a high-level security review meeting held in Koraput recently, attended by Director-General Prakash Mishra besides senior officials from the BSF. At the meeting, the recent successes of the state police and paramilitary forces engaged in the anti-Maoist operations in the region were lauded.

Madhav, a wanted Maoist involved in several high-profile attacks on security personnel in different southern Odisha districts, was recently killed in an encounter with the police in Malkangiri district. Similarly, combing operations by security forces had resulted in surrender of nearly half a dozen of Maoists during the last few days.