Maoists blow up mobile tower in Orissa

MALKANGIRI - Suspected Maoists blew up a mobile tower control room of a private telecom company in Orissa’s Malkangiri District on Saturday night.

Official sources on Sunday said the rebels blew up the control room using landmine blast at Nilakamberu village in a bid to disrupt the communication network in their stronghold.

It has been reported that the Maoists then fled into the forest area raising slogans against the Central Government and the security forces.

Over the last two weeks, the ultras have blown up a school building, a panchayat office building and a godown in the district.

The attack follows the killing of Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad.

Andhra Pradesh police reportedly killed Azad in an encounter in the Jogapur forest area of Andhra Pradesh’s Adilabad District early on Friday morning last week, while he was attempting to cross into neighbouring Maharashtra.

Azad was a member of the central committee of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) and carried a reward of 1.2 million rupees on his head.

Azad, who did his MTech in Warangal, was linked to the Maoist movement for more than 35 years and used to write articles for magazines on Maoist ideology.

There are reports that Azad was assigned the task of revising the Maoist movement in India. (ANI)