A Maoist camp operating in Tarsingh police station limits in Ganjam district of Odisha was destroyed during a joint operation by police forces of Gajapati and Ganjam districts on Wednesday morning.
It hinted that after the arrest of expelled CPI (Maoist) leader Sabyasachi Panda in Berhampur in July this year, the outlawed leftist extremist organisation is making efforts to increase its base in the erstwhile area of operation of Panda.
Exchange of fire Speaking to The Hindu , the Gajapati Superintendent of Police (SP) Satyajit Nayak, who led this operation, said there was an exchange of fire between the Maoists and security forces at the spot of this Maoist camp inside the jungle near Borimunda under Tarsingh police station from 6.45 a.m. to 7.20 a.m.
According to him, the Maoists present in the camp did not seem to be from Odisha. They were led by a Telugu man and most cadres present in the camp seemed to be from Chhatisgarh. It was suspected that there were around 20 Maoists in this camp.
One Self Loading Rifle (SLR), two magazines, 30 rounds of live ammunition, medicines, Maoist literature and things for their day-to-day use were seized from the destroyed camp. One personnel of District Voluntary Force (DVF) of Gajapati police received a minor injury.
Although the leftist extremists escaped from the spot, blood marks left behind hinted that Maoists may have been injured or had casualties.
The Gajapati district police had received intelligence reports regarding this camp of the CPI (Maoist) organisation.
It may be noted that after expelling Panda from the organisation in 2012, the CPI (Maoist) outfit had initiated efforts to rebuild its organisation in Kandhamal, Gajapati and Ganjam districts through cadres from Andhra Pradesh and Chhatisgarh.
Senior Maoist leader from Andhra Pradesh M. Balkrishna also visited this region to reorganise the ground level organisation.
