Kalahandi: A journalist was killed in a landmine explosion by the Maoists in Odisha’s Kalahandi district on February 5 (Saturday).
The explosives were allegedly planted by the Maoist outfit KKBN. The target however was the police and not the journalist.
The explosive (IED) had been planted near the poster.
The Mao outfit had also planned for a police ambush suggest reports.
The deceased journalist has been identified as Rohit Kumar Biswal, a resident of Madanpur-Rampur area of the Kalahandi district. He was working as a reporter for a local newspaper.
Biswal reportedly got inputs from some reliable sources that Maoists had allegedly pasted posters near Karlakhunta Bridge in Mohangiri area under Madanpur Rampur police station limits. In the posters, the red rebels had appealed to the villagers to boycott the Panchayat elections in the area.
Soon Biswal rushed to the spot to collect the information and in the process, he started to click pictures of the Maoist posters. However, he was blown away by a high-intensity blast following which he died on the spot.
It is suspected that Biswal was blown away after he accidentally stepped on the land mines planted by the Maoists to target the security forces.
Ms Kalinga