Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Gumudumaha, July 10:

The Gumudumaha villagers today bade a tearful adieu to the five residents who fell to the bullets of security personnel during an anti-Maoist operation in Odisha’s tribal-dominated district late on Friday night.

crying

A pall of gloom descended on the nondescript village after the bodies of the tirbals and Dalits reached the hamlet after post-mortem.

The last rites were performed and the bodies were consigned to flames amid the heart-wrenching scenes. The inconsolable folks were hard to reconcile with the reality that their near and dear ones have travelled too far, not to return to the corporeal world.

The local populace joined the bereaved persons in the last journey of the departed souls despite the drizzle throughout the day. The simmering anger among the villagers was evident on their faces as they contradicted to the police’s claim of the villagers being trapped in the crossfire.

“We were returning on two auto-rickshaws from Baliguda after withdrawing wages towards MGNREGS. One of the vehicles got stuck in the mud and we were pushing it when indiscriminate firing began. My two-year-old boy was silenced by bullets,” Sunita Digal, a survivor said.

Notably, over 18 persons were returning to their village on two auto-rickshaws when the SOG jawans opened fired at them mistaking them as Maoists.

According to Kanak News reports, the security personnel sourrounded the village post the Red operation. The bodies and the injuried were left unattended till Saturday afternoon.

The district administration officials only reached the village yesterday afternoon and admitted the injured to the nearby hospital.

Of the five grievously injured, four were shifted to MKCG Medical College and Hospital and one to SCB Medical College and Hospital.

While OPCC president Prasad Harichandan and former Nabarangpur MP Pradeep Majhi visited the village today, no member of the ruling party or local unit representative has reached out to the bereaved families.