Rourkela: A railway trackman was killed, and another was injured when an IED planted by suspected Maoist operatives exploded on railway tracks under K Balang police limits of Rourkela Police District (RPD) in Odisha’s Sundargarh district on Sunday morning.
The deceased has been identified as Atua Oram (37), an employee of a South Eastern Railway (SER). His injured colleague, Budhua Munda (35), has been admitted to a private hospital at Rourkela for treatment.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh for the next of kin of the deceased.
According to sources, the incident occurred at around around 10 am during a track inspection on August 3, the last day of the CPI (Maoist)’s Martyr Week, near Renjda station, about 110 km from Rourkela and close to the Maoist-dominated Saranda forest in Jharkhand. The explosion partially damaged a concrete sleeper on Rourkela–Barsuan–Renjda–Topadihi–Karampada rail route, mostly used for mineral transport.
Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwahi, who rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation, said that Maoist posters were spotted in the area the previous night, prompting a routine track scan as per the Standard Operating Procedure. The blast took place about one kilometre away from where the posters were found, he added.
Meanwhile, security forces, including SOG, DVF, IR Battalion, and bomb disposal squads, have launched an extensive combing operation in the area.
Police suspect that the IED was meant to target security forces.
The region is witnessing a resurgence of Maoist violence originating from Jharkhand’s Saranda forest after a five-year lull. It began with looting of an explosive-laden truck on May 27, followed by a blast that killed an ASI of the Jharkhand-based CRPF Battalion on June 14 in the Banko forest.
