Red Terror strikes again as Maoists blow up forest beat house in Odisha’s Nuapada

Nuapada: Red menace once again reared its ugly head after Maoists struck again and blew up a forest beat house in Nuapada district of Odisha on Thursday night.

As per reports, a group of 15-20 Maoists assembled at Golabandh village of Kermeli panchayat within Nuapada Sadar police limits after midnight and set a forest beat house on fire at around 2 am. They also blew up a JCB machine belonging to a contractor and went on to stick eight posters against the BJP and BJD governments at the Centre and State, respectively, at various places in the village. The pamphlets, which read about the governments’ anti-people and pro-industry policies, alleged that the political parties in power are working against them and exhorted locals to join hands in the Maoist movement.

Official sources said this could be a retaliatory move as two Maoist camps had been busted by joint security forces after Nuapada police had received specific intelligence about the Naxals grouping together in large numbers in Patdhara reserve forest on Chhattisgarh border to carry out subversive activities.

Confirming the incident, Nuapada SP GR Raghavendra said the posters were written by Maoists belonging to the Mainpur-Nuapada division. “Eight handwritten letters, written on polythene, were put up across the village alleging police atrocities and anti-people approach of the BJP, BJD and Chhattisgarh governments. We had recently unearthed two Naxal camps at Patdhara. This seems like a retaliation. We are verifying with our sources,” he added.

The incident, which comes close on the heels of recent busting of the Maoist camps, has spread panic among locals with such recurrent acts of terror by the rebels.