A journalist died in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast when he approached a poster put up by suspected CPI (Maoist) asking people to boycott elections to the three-tier Panchayati Raj institutions in Odisha’s Kalahandi district on Saturday.
The incident took place around noon when Rohit Biswal (43), a journalist of an Odia daily, visited Damba Karlakhunta area where the posters had appeared.
“We received information about posters put up by Left Wing Extremists of Madanpur Rampur area around 9.30 a.m. The journalist reached the spot before the security forces could go there. We suspect he might have stepped on the IED planted near the poster or the IED was triggered when he pulled the poster,” said Sarvana Vivek M, Kalahandi SP.
Mr. Vivek said, “Two teams of CRPF are approaching the spot from two directions after carrying out routine area domination. It is important to ascertain if LWEs are present near posters. We have moved district police and bomb squad to the site with an instruction to follow the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).”
“It is unfortunate that a person died in the IED blast which was clearly meant for the police personnel,” he said.
The poster put up reportedly by the Kandhamal-Kalahandi-Boudh-Nayagarh (KKBN) division of the State committee of the CPI (Maoist) says, “State-sponsored violence is being inflicted in the garb of elections. Everyone should boycott the election. The CRPF units should be withdrawn from the area. The rights of land dwellers should be settled.”
There have been a series of posters put up by the CPI (Maoist) in Rayagada, Kandhamal and Kalahandi districts asking people not to participate in the upcoming rural polls.
