Thaindian News

Bhubaneswar, May 3 (IANS) Security personnel and police Tuesday intensified combing operation in Orissa’s Kandhamal district a day after a paramilitary trooper was killed in a gunfight with Maoists in the region, police said.

The trooper who belonged to the Indian Reserve Battalion was killed and four other security personnels were injured during an exchange of fire in a forest of Daringbadi block, about 350 km from state capital Bhubaneswar Monday.

Additional Superintendent of Police C.R. Das said the authorities learnt about the death of IRB trooper in ambush only after policemen returned from the site Tuesday.

He said a team of about 20 security personnel, including local police, had gone on a patrol to the region and came under heavy attack by the rebels.

Additional police forces have been sent to the area. They have intensified combing operation to nab the Maoist rebels, a senior state police official here told IANS.

Police have recovered two tiffin boxes packed with low intensity bombs during a search carried out at the site later. Over a dozen persons have been detained from the nearby villages for questioning, he said.

“We are also examining all the vehicles passing through the area,” he said.

The district of communally sensitive Kandhamal is considered a Maoist stronghold.

The killing of a Hindu leader and four of his aids by the suspected guerrillas Aug 23, 2008, had triggered widespread communal violence in the district that lasted for several months.

At least 38 people were killed in the violence.