Kandhamal: A Maoist banner has surfaced at Dhungiadia ghat near Daringbadi square under K Nuagaon police limits in Kandhamal district Sunday.
The banner was found hung from tree branches. In the banner, Maoists urged people to support and make their call for a strike from August 18 to 24 a success.
The banner was put up by a Maoist militia under Kandhamal-Kalahandi-Boudh-Nayagarh (K.K.B.N) division.
In the banner, the Maoists killed in gun fights between jawans were termed as martyrs. The division took the help of the banner to convey their Lal Salam to the killed Maoists.
Notably, seven Maoists were killed in three incidents of fire exchange during a combing operation carried out by jawans of Special Operation Group (SOG) and the District Voluntary Force (DVF) of the State police in Sirla forest under Tumudibandha block.
After a brief lull since the gun fights, the surfacing of Maoist banner from a place which is just two kilometres away from the police station indicates it nothing but an open challenge to the police. The villagers have since been in a state of panic. A kind of unprecedented silence is prevailing in the entire village.
PNN