After a brief lull of few days, the Western Odisha district of Kandhamal again witnessed Maoist activities at Landagaon, Khamanakhola under Baliguda police limits and Kurtamagad under Tumudibandha police limits in the district.
The ultras pasted banners and posters at different places of the district in which they called upon people to observe 24-hour bandh on Odisha-East Chhattisgarh border on May 20. Besides, the ultras demanded stringent punishment for the 'Murderers' of Maoist Mukund Kanhar who was killed by security forces earlier.
Also, they asked locals to raise their voice against injustice and atrocity meted out by police and CRPF personnel.
In order to raise public sympathy, the ultras apologized to the people and family members of journalist Rohit Biswal who died in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast while trying to go near posters put up by Maoists on February 5, 2022.
In the posters, they had warned people not to vote in the panchayat polls in Mohangiri village under Kalahandi's Madanpur-Rampur block.
He rushed to the spot to check the veracity of the information. When Biswal started to take pictures of the posters he was blown away by a high-intensity blast.
The blast which occurred near Karlakhunta Bridge in Mohangiri area was so severe that the scribe died on the spot.