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On Wednesday, seven personnel of OSAP were killed when the minibus they were travelling in was flung off the road after a landmine.
The death toll in the landmine blast near Sunki ghat in Koraput district increased to 8 on Thursday, after the body of another Odisha State Armed Police (OSAP) official was recovered. On Wednesday, seven personnel of OSAP were killed when the minibus they were travelling in was flung off the road after a landmine, reportedly planted by Maoists under a culvert, exploded near Sunki in Koraput district. Five OSAP jwans have been injured in the incident.
Officials said body of the driver Tulasidhar Majhi, who had gone missing after the blast, was found today. The other jawans who died in the landmine blast are Havildar major Somnath Sisa, Havildar Arun Kumar Nayak, Harekrushna Prusty, Ganesh Prasad Saha, Sanjay Kumar Dash, Subarna Kumar Raj and Pradipta Kumar Rout. The seriously injured personnel are now being treated in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatanam.
The bodies were carried in coffins to Koraput town where DIG of south-western range, S Shyni and other senior officials paid their last respects. The deceased were given a 21-gun salute.
Koraput SP Charan Singh Meena said the blast took place on NH-26 at Mungabhumi village near Sunki, along the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border. Thirteen policemen, all of them drivers, were travelling from Koraput to Angul district to take part in a training exercise. Following the explosion, the Tata 709 minibus, which the policemen were travelling in, was flung nearly 60-ft down the valley abutting the mountainous road.
State energy minister Pranab Prakash Das had a lucky escape as he travelled to Bhubaneswar on that road just minutes ago. Officials said the Maoists had targeted a BSF convoy that was patrolling the area ahead of the panchayat polls this month. Around 40 Maoists were reportedly hiding not very far from the blast spot when the incident happened.
Despite there being a BSF camp at Sunki, about 2 km from the blast site, no one from the camp could reach the spot in the first one hour after the explosion. Later, policemen from Pottangi police station, Koraput, and Andhra Pradesh reached the spot with BSF personnel.
The blast has completely paralysed traffic on the NH-26 that connects Andhra Pradesh to Odisha with hundreds of buses and trucks stranded on both sides of the road since afternoon.
The blast comes nearly two weeks before the three-tier panchayat polls in the state. Maoists in Koraput and adjoining Malkangiri district, have asked people to boycott the rural polls. Scared of Maoists, no one in Talagoluru panchayat of Pottangi has filed nomination for the panchayat polls.
Officials said Wednesday’s blast was the Maoists’ retaliation to the October encounter by Andhra’s Greyhound force and Odisha police in the forests of Malkangiri that left 30 rebels dead.
In August 2013, four BSF personnel died and three others were injured when suspected Maoists triggered a landmine blast in the same area. In last 3 months, Maoists in Pottangi area of Koraput have killed a contractor and husband of a Naib Sarpanch.
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/8-cops-dead-in-odisha-landmine-blast-4503669/
R.I.P
The death toll in the landmine blast near Sunki ghat in Koraput district increased to 8 on Thursday, after the body of another Odisha State Armed Police (OSAP) official was recovered. On Wednesday, seven personnel of OSAP were killed when the minibus they were travelling in was flung off the road after a landmine, reportedly planted by Maoists under a culvert, exploded near Sunki in Koraput district. Five OSAP jwans have been injured in the incident.
Officials said body of the driver Tulasidhar Majhi, who had gone missing after the blast, was found today. The other jawans who died in the landmine blast are Havildar major Somnath Sisa, Havildar Arun Kumar Nayak, Harekrushna Prusty, Ganesh Prasad Saha, Sanjay Kumar Dash, Subarna Kumar Raj and Pradipta Kumar Rout. The seriously injured personnel are now being treated in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatanam.
The bodies were carried in coffins to Koraput town where DIG of south-western range, S Shyni and other senior officials paid their last respects. The deceased were given a 21-gun salute.
Koraput SP Charan Singh Meena said the blast took place on NH-26 at Mungabhumi village near Sunki, along the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border. Thirteen policemen, all of them drivers, were travelling from Koraput to Angul district to take part in a training exercise. Following the explosion, the Tata 709 minibus, which the policemen were travelling in, was flung nearly 60-ft down the valley abutting the mountainous road.
State energy minister Pranab Prakash Das had a lucky escape as he travelled to Bhubaneswar on that road just minutes ago. Officials said the Maoists had targeted a BSF convoy that was patrolling the area ahead of the panchayat polls this month. Around 40 Maoists were reportedly hiding not very far from the blast spot when the incident happened.
Despite there being a BSF camp at Sunki, about 2 km from the blast site, no one from the camp could reach the spot in the first one hour after the explosion. Later, policemen from Pottangi police station, Koraput, and Andhra Pradesh reached the spot with BSF personnel.
The blast has completely paralysed traffic on the NH-26 that connects Andhra Pradesh to Odisha with hundreds of buses and trucks stranded on both sides of the road since afternoon.
The blast comes nearly two weeks before the three-tier panchayat polls in the state. Maoists in Koraput and adjoining Malkangiri district, have asked people to boycott the rural polls. Scared of Maoists, no one in Talagoluru panchayat of Pottangi has filed nomination for the panchayat polls.
Officials said Wednesday’s blast was the Maoists’ retaliation to the October encounter by Andhra’s Greyhound force and Odisha police in the forests of Malkangiri that left 30 rebels dead.
In August 2013, four BSF personnel died and three others were injured when suspected Maoists triggered a landmine blast in the same area. In last 3 months, Maoists in Pottangi area of Koraput have killed a contractor and husband of a Naib Sarpanch.
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/8-cops-dead-in-odisha-landmine-blast-4503669/
R.I.P
