High-Alert in Agency Area as Naxals Call for Bandh

A high-alert has been sounded in Vizag Agency area of the district in the wake of Naxals' call for a five-state bandh tomorrow to protest the encounter on Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border last month.

Naxals have called for bandh in Andhra, Telangana, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra to protest the police encounter in Malkangiri district of Odisha in which over two dozen rebels were killed.

Superintendent of Police (Visakhapatnam rural) Rahul Dev Sharma said apart from deployment of additional security forces in the sensitive areas, local political leaders of all parties who were known to be on hit-list of the ultras had been moved to safer areas.

Security had been intensified at all the 17 `sensitive' police stations in Vizag Agency area and at government establishments and the police had set up over 50 check posts on roads, he said.

SARPANCH KILLED: Meanwhile, a former sarpanch, who was among three persons kidnapped three days ago, was today killed by Maoists, the third victim in a week in Odisha's Kalahandi district. The body of Jayant Majhi, a former sarpanch of Trilochanpur and a resident of Sapuachanchala village, was found by villagers lying in a pool of blood on the road connecting Lanjigarh and Bijepur. A leaflet found near the body said Majhi was killed as he was a police informer. The other two kidnapped along with him on October 30 were earlier released. Maoists had killed two other persons earlier on October 26 over the death of a woman cadre in an encounter with policemen at Katlanga reserve forest on October 15.