Cuttack: Lauding the efforts of Odisha Police, Director General of Police R P Sharma on Sunday said the state has achieved significant success in the ongoing anti-Maoist operations in the country and killed 15 hardcore extremists in the past one year.
“The Odisha Police has tasted unprecedented success and engaged in 24 gun-battles between October 22, 2017, and October 18, 2018, killing 15 hardcore members of CPI (Maoist). Those include two Divisional Committee and six Area Committee members,” Sharma said at a function to observe the 59th Police Commemoration Day at State Police Headquarters here.
The DGP informed that during the said period 45 Red rebels were arrested while 28 other radicals surrendered before the police. A total of 38 firearms, including 19 sophisticated weapons, besides huge quantities of ammunition and improvised explosive devices were seized from the Maoists.
“One policeman (Sanjay Majhi) became a martyr. The police suffered no other loss during the period,” the top cop said, in his address. “Because of the timely action of our security personnel the situation has considerably improved in the Left wing extremism-affected areas barring a few,” he noted.
On April 9, 2018, Majhi (22), who was a jawan with the District Voluntary Force (DVF) of Rayagada, died in a landmine explosion near Sakata village in Muniguda.
The gathering paid homage to the policemen who had laid down their lives in the line of duty. They observed two-minute silence, paid floral tributes and gave gun salute.
This year, 414 police personnel have laid down their lives across the country.
Inspector general of police (headquarters) Asit Kumar Panigrahi read out the names of the 414 martyrs.
“Remembrance meetings should be held in the villages and schools of the martyrs. We organised programmes in this regard at the district level from October 2 to 12,” Sharma said.
The DGP also felicitated families of eight martyrs – Manoranjan Lenka (CRPF), Bhola Naik (Odisha Police), Dandapani Mishra (Odisha Police), Sheik Samiruddin (Odisha Police), R N Mahakud (CRPF), Partha Ranjan Behera (Odisha Police), Surendra Dhala (Odisha Police) and Shibasis Panda (Odisha Police).
