Bhawanipatna: Alert cops averted a disaster by taking timely action to remove and defuse a live IED planted by the outlawed Maoists at the side of the state highway near Kitpada Chhak 5 km from Bhawanipatna town of Odisha’s Kalahandi district on Monday morning.
According to reports, local villagers spotted the IED and informed the police, who rushed to the spot with the bomb squad and defused the explosive. An empty wine bottle and a Maoist poster were also found under the tree where the IED was found. A roadside tree was felled to block the state highway at the place.
It is worth mentioning here that the central committee of the CPI (Maoist) gave a bandh call in seven districts of Odisha on Monday in support of their 12-point charter of demands. The bandh call was given in the Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Nayararh, Boudh, Rayagada, Gajapati, and Ganjam districts of Odisha. Prior to today’s bandh, the Maoists had appealed to the people in the region to hold a rights campaign from May 8 to 14.
The red rebels felled trees to block roads in various places in these seven districts and put up posters in support of their demands and urging people to support the bandh.
