OST Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Dec 14:

The Director General of Police Prakash Mishra today said the Maoists who have been pushed to the brink in Malkangiri because of resolute action by the police and security forces are targeting ordinary people to give vent to their sense of frustration and terrorise people into submission .dgp

“ The so-called red terror in Malkangiri will end when we deliver a decisive blow and we are gearing up for that. The day is not far off when that would happen ”, he said.

Reacting to the coldblooded murder of two villagers in Bhejingawada on Friday night MIshra told OST, “It is a battle for supremacy and the Maoists are fast losing out. That explains why they are resorting to such cowardly acts.”

He, however, dismissed  Maoists claims that the people they had killed were police informers.

“ I want to make it clear that none of the three people killed by Maoists this week was working for the police. It’s a big lie. We have not been using local tribal people as our agents as some people would like to believe,” he said in an obvious reference to a statement made by  Prof Hargopal to a local news channel on Saturday.

Prof Hargopal in a phone interview to a local channel had said the police should desist from using poor tribals as informers and put their lives to undue risk.

The DGP did not rule out the possibility of Maoists continuing with the practice of abducting ordinary people and killing them in the near future saying, “ these blood-thirsty elements will continue to target poor villagers because they are in no position to take on the security forces.”

"But that will end soon," he said.