Maoists torch vehicle in Malkangiri

Malkangiri: Maoists torched a vehicle of a private company and abducted its four employees but released them after about four hours in Malkangiri district, police said today.

About 25 armed red rebels intercepted the jeep and asked its occupants belonging to the company to get down in a forest road near Ralegada panchayat under Chitrkonda police limits last evening.

After setting ablaze the vehicle, the ultras took all the four employees into the nearby jungle and kept them hostage for about four hours. Later all of them were released, police said.

This is the sixth such incident involving this particular company. On earlier occasions, the Maoists twice blasted their pipeline besides torching many vehicles of the company, they said.

.