Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Home Department on Tuesday extended the prohibition on use and access of social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, X and any other through internet and other medium of data services for another 18 hours up to 12 pm on December 10 in Malkangiri district.
Earlier a 24-hour internet shutdown was imposed from 6 pm on Monday as the district continued to boil as a mob went on a rampage again in MV-26, torching more houses and forcing the inhabitants to flee, over the alleged murder of a tribal woman whose headless body was recovered from a river.
Prohibitory orders under Section 163 of BNS were also clamped within 10-km radius of the village with Border Security Force (BSF) and armed police personnel deployed to pre-empt a potential backlash.
According to sources, Lake Podiami (55), a woman belonging to Koya tribe of Rakhelguda village under Korukonda police limits, went missing on December 3 and her headless body, which was identified by clothing, was found in the Poteru river a day later. One Subharanjan Mondal (45) of MV-26 was arrested in connection with the case, which is suspected to be the fallout of a land dispute.
On Sunday afternoon, nearly 5,000 people, reportedly armed with traditional weapons including axes, bows and arrows, marched to MV-26, where around 100 Bengali families reside, and damaged and set houses on fire and destroyed vehicles.
On being informed, four fire brigade teams rushed to the village to extinguish the flames. DIG (south western), Kanwar Vishal Singh, Malkangiri Collector Somesh Kumar Upadhyay and SP Vinodh Patil H also visited the affected areas and held a peace committee meeting, involving both the groups.
To restore normalcy, the Malkangiri Police also conducted a flag march.
However, hundreds of people shouting pro-Adivasi slogans reportedly again entered MV-26 on Monday afternoon and targeted multiple homes and properties despite the presence of police. Nearly 1,000 residents reportedly deserted the settlement overnight, anticipating more attacks.
Meanwhile, ten more companies of CRPF have been deployed, in addition to 20 platoons of CRPF, OSAP, IRB, and Odisha Police.
Sources said that over two lakh Bengalis-peaking families, who migrated from Bangladesh till the 1970s and acquired Indian citizenship, live in 214 villages across Malkangiri district.
