April 4: At least 10 jawans of Orissa’s elite anti-Maoist force, the Special Operations Group, were killed and nine others injured, eight of them seriously, when the vehicle in which they were travelling was blown away by Maoists at Mantriamba, nearly 550 km from here in Orissa’s Koraput district, on Sunday.
The incident occurred when three platoons of SOG jawans were on their way in three vehicles from Baipariguda in Koraput district to Govindapalli in Malkangiri district to join the Operation Green Hunt against the Maoists. Said Orissa DGP (intelligence) Prakash Mishra: “Ten securitymen were killed and nine others injured in the incident. The injured were rushed to the nearby government hospital at Jeypore. Eight of them were (later) airlifted to Visakhapatnam, in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, when their condition worsened.” The police said the first of three vans carrying the SOG jawans was hit by the landmine explosion triggered by the Maoists. The impact was so devastating that the bodies of some jawans were blown into pieces and the vehicle flew nearly 20 feet into the air. The bodies of the dead as well as the injured jawans were seen lying scattered around the blast site.
Nearly 50 SOG jawans travelling in the other two vehicles then stood guard, and came under heavy fire from Maoist rebels hiding in a forest close to the blast site. The heavy exchange of fire between the two sides lasted for nearly an hour. The Maoists later fled from the area before police reinforcements could arrive.
Senior police officers of Koraput and Malkangiri districts rushed to the area to supervise rescue operations. One BSF battalion was also rushed to the spot, and its men joined the SOG jawans in combing operations.
Akshaya Kumar Sahoo
Bhubaneswar