Feb 16 2008
Naxal attack in Orrisa!
Naxal attack in Orrisa on Friday late night left 14 police personnel and a civilian dead. Around 500 naxals attacked a police training school, armory and a police station in Nayagarh district of Orrisa. A huge cache of arms and ammunition was also taken away in a truck and a bus they had hijacked.
The victims included two from PTS, and six from the police station and armory, besides a civilian. Four policemen injured in the attack and the battle continued till around 12:15 am (Saturday). The police had put up a brave fight against the Naxals, but they were outnumbered as told by Manmohan Praharaj, Director State Intelligence Wing.
Before launching the attack, the Naxals which included women cadres announced that their target was the police only and would not harm the general public.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik visited the armory and the police training school at Nayagarh. Police sources said the Naxals who attacked the police were speaking in Hindi and Telugu and they suspect that the Naxals were from neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.
Meanwhile, red alert has been sounded in the state and borders with Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Bengal and Jharkhand sealed.
This is the second naxal attck in Orrisa. Earlier, on March 24, 2006 more than 500 heavily armed naxals, including a large number of women, attacked armed police camps, and freed all 40 prisoners in the sub-jail in a replay of similar violence in Madhuban and Jehanabad in Bihar.
