Odisha: Police Exchange Fire With Maoists In Swabhiman Anchal

Malkangiri: An exchange of fire took place between the security forces and CPI (Maoist) at Muduliguda forest under Swabhiman Anchal in Malkangiri district on Sunday morning.

Acting on a tip-off about the camps of the Naxals in Muduliguda, the police under the leadership of Malkangiri Superintendents of Police (SP) launched a search operation in the area.

Police sources said the members of the banned outfit spotted the security forces advancing towards them and opened fire at them. The security personnel retaliated.

Earlier on February 5, a huge cache of explosives stored by the Maoists had been unearthed by a team of Border Security Force (BSF) jawans from Piplapadar jungle in Swabhiman Anchal of the district.

The explosives including Gelatin and Detonators had been kept in an HDPE container and hidden in an underground bunker to be used to target security forces operating there. Besides, Maoist uniforms and literature had also been seized from the dump.

In another similar incident on February 1, a few guns had been seized by the security forces from a Maoists Camp at Bender forest near Lathor in Bolangir district.

A day earlier, a Maoist had been killed during an encounter with a combined team of Special Operations Group (SOG) and District Voluntary Force (DVF) in a forest near Nunkhari at Madakapada under Mudulipada police limits in Malkangiri district.

(Edited by Rashmi Ranjan Mohanty)