The Maoists on Saturday night killed three people, including a patient and a woman paramedic, by blowing up an ambulance. The third victim was the driver of the vehicle.
According to police, the rebels triggered explosion when the ambulance carrying a patient and paramedic was passing through the Brahmanigaon bazaar in Kandhamal district, nearly 250 km from here.
All the three persons, including the driver, died on the spot, the police said on Sunday. The incident follows the murder of a contractor at the same place on Thursday.
Meanwhile, pushed to the back-foot by sustained combing operations of the state police and the Central paramilitary forces, the Maoists of the Srikakulam-Koraput division have decided to engage snake charmers as a means of self-defence.
The snake charmers will be required to collect venomous reptiles and leave them in the dense forests of Koraput, Rayagada and Malkangiri districts where Border Security Force and Central Reserve Police Force along with the state police are carrying out anti-Naxal operation called Operation Greenhunt.
According to reports, Srikakulam-Koraput division self-styled commander Daya, while addressing a meeting of the tribal activists in an inaccessible hilly forest under Narayanpatna block in Rayagada district on Thursday, said at least 200 members of the People’s Liberation Army were undergoing training on how to catch poisonous snakes and deploy them on strategic areas to scare away the security personnel.
Daya also reportedly revealed in the meeting that at least 3,000 members of the Ghenua battalion, a high-skilled assault front the Moaists comprising mostly local tribal youths, were ready to take on the security personnel in the region. The decision to deploy snake charmers and raise Ghenua battalion was taken in a recent meeting of the Central Committee held at Lalgarh in West Bengal, the commander said.
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Maoists kill policeman in Bastar
age correspondent
Raipur
Nov. 28: Suspected Maoist rebels on Sunday evening shot dead a policeman at Kaudagaon in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district, the police said.
The victim- Nanka Chandra (45) — was returning home after cremating body of his nephew, when the Naxals waylaid him and sprayed bullets on him. He died on the spot.
Other villagers, who accompanied him, fled the spot when the rebels threatened to target them.
Later, the police reached the spot and recovered the body.
“The policeman was shot from close range. Around 20 ultras waited at a place close to the victim’s village for him to return from the cremation ground. We have immediately rushed reinforcements to launch combing operations in the area to arrest the killers”, a senior district police officer told this newspaper.