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Rayagada (Orissa)/Patna (Bihar), July 7 (ANI): The 48-hour ‘all India shutdown’ called by the Maoists to protest the killing of their leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad affected normal life in the five States of Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh.

In Orissa, the Naxal affected areas such as Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati, Malkangri and Sundergadh have been placed on high alert.

The public transport here remained off the roads due to the shutdown, which created a lot of troubles for the daily commuters.

“Due to this shutdown there is no transport. People are facing a lot of difficulty,” said Ganesh Mahato, a resident of Rayagada.

The police here have deployed personnel in full strength and are carrying out extensive checks of all the vehicles entering Rayagada region since midnight.

“With help of CRPF, we are doing a massive checking and we have deployed police on all the exit and entry routes of Rayagada. We are also carrying out specific combing projects in the suspected areas,” said Anoop Krishna, Superintendent of Police, Rayagada.

In Bihar’s Patna city, Minister of State for Railways KH Muniyappa addressing senior officers of East Central Railway mentioned that to find a concrete solution to the security problem of the railways in the Naxal affected areas of India, the Union Home Ministry has convened a meeting of the Chief Ministers of all Naxal-affected States.

“We are continuously making our efforts to address this problem and we hope we will try to solve this problem. And, I appeal to the people this is your property. You have given blood and sweat to produce this project for last so many years,” said Muniyappa.

“This has to be protected and State has to cooperate, State police has to cooperate where we have to address the attacks of the Maoists. That is why the honourable Home Minister has called a meeting of the Chief Ministers of Naxal-affected States,” he added.

Andhra Pradesh police reportedly killed Azad in an encounter in the Jogapur forest area of Andhra Pradesh’s Adilabad District early on Friday morning last week, while he was attempting to cross into neighbouring Maharashtra.Azad was a member of the central committee of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) and carried a reward of 1.2 million rupees on his head.

Azad, who did his MTech in Warangal, was linked to the Maoist movement for more than 35 years and used to write articles for magazines on Maoist ideology.

There are reports that Azad was assigned the task of revising the Maoist movement in India.

Maoist attacks have increased this year, especially after the Government launched a coordinated security offensive involving tens of thousands of police trying to flush out the rebels from their jungle hideouts in central and eastern India. (ANI)