Maoists abduct 5 poll officials and a villager in Malkangiri

BHUBANESWAR/KORAPUT: To disrupt the rural poll process, Maoists reportedly abducted six people including five poll officials and a civilian from the cut-off area under

Chitrakonda block

in Malkangiri district on Friday morning, the third day of filing nomination papers.

The abducted officials have been identified as

Purusottam Behera

,

Lingaraj Majhi

,

Praveen Soren

, Hrusikesh Nayak and K K Singh from Panasput, Jantri, Andrapali, Gajalmamudi and Jodambo panchayats respectively. The abducted civilian is Manoranjan Sisa, son of Laxman Sisa, village headman of Jodambo, officials said.

According to reports, five separate groups of Maoists swooped down on the panchayat offices and abducted the officials.

"The officers had gone to the cut-off areas on January 11 to oversee the poll process and to receive the nomination papers. They were supposed to stay there till January 18. According to Malkangiri SP, there are rumors in the locality that the officials might have been kidnapped. Since it is not confirmed, we have asked the DG police and director, intelligence to confirm. A clear picture would come up by evening," said home secretary Asit Tripathy.

Briefing the reporters here, DGP

K B Singh

said teams have been sent to find out whereabouts of the alleged kidnapping victims. "No demand has been made by Maoists yet. But all efforts are being made to trace the poll officials. Also, elaborate security arrangements would be made for smooth conduct of the panchayat polls," he said.

Meanwhile, the state election commission (SEC) sought a report from the district collector, Malkangiri about the incident.

Owning to

Maoist threat

, not a single nomination was filed in Chitrakonda block though the nomination filing process started from January 11.

Earlier, on Tuesday the Maoists through posters put on at several places in the cut-off area had opposed the on-going three-tier panchayat poll and had warned people of dire consequence if they either file nominations or cast vote. "If anyone dares to file nomination he will be eliminated and fingers will be severed of those who will cast vote," a Maoist poster threatened.

Though police claim to have taken all necessary security measures to thwart any Maoist attack, but the latest developments have created fresh trouble for the

Malkangiri administration

as the killing of as many as 30 Maoists in an exchange of fire with the security personnel in the district’s cut-off area on October 24, 2016 has given rise to more possibility of Maoist backlash during the poll process.

It may be noted that out of 1509 booths in the district, as many as 741 and 453 booths have been identified as hyper-sensitive and sensitive.