Maoists blast mobile tower, school; dug up road

Malkangiri, Orissa: Armed Maoists destroyed a mobile tower in Orissa’s Malkangiri district today on the fifth day of their PLGA week, which disrupted normal life in some pockets, police said. Over 60 slogan-shouting ultras including women struck near the mobile tower of a private operator and its machine room at Kiang under Mathili police station in the wee hours and set it on fire, Malkangiri, superintendent of police, Anirudha Kumar Singh said.[caption id=“attachment_149349” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Workers look at railway tracks blown up by Maoist rebels at Hehegara forest area in Lathehar, Jharkhand on Sunday. Maoist rebels have killed 11 people in attacks after their leader died in a gunbattle with security forces, police said. AP”]  [/caption] The Maoists are observing the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), the military wing of CPI (Maoist), week during which violence is expected. The ultras had destroyed the same tower twice earlier. Cadres from Malkangiri Dalam and Darva Dalam of Chattishgarh are believed to have been involved in the vandalism, Singh said. Meanwhile, the Maoists had dug up the main road connecting Raipur and Jagadalpur via Malkangiri disrupting traffic on the busy route. They have also felled trees at a few places to block the traffic. As a result, hundreds of trucks carrying essential commodities and other vehicles were seen stranded on either side of the road. Normal life was affected in areas including Kalimela, Motu, Padia, MV 79 and Chitrakonda as shops remained closed, vehiclular traffic were off the road and educational institutions, banks and government offices remained closed. Meanwhile, senior Maoist leaders from Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh assembled and unveiled a statue of their top leader Kishenji, who was killed in West Bengal recently, at Alampeta in Chitrakonda area. At Garhwa district in Jharkhand, the Maoists destroyed a school building before their two-day Bharat bandh ended at midnight, the police said. A group of armed Maoists stuffed IED inside a room of a middle school at Bodari village and triggered the blast, damaging a large portion of the structure, superintendent of police Michael S Raj told reporters. PTI