Civilian shot dead by Naxals for felling trees in forest in Odisha's Nabarangpur

BHUBANESWAR: A group of Naxals allegedly shot dead a civilian for reportedly felling trees in Nabarangpur district with the assistance of the forest department.

The deceased identified as Narayan Nag was killed under Raighar police station limits on Friday night. The left wing extremists left behind a poster claiming that Narayan was responsible for deforestation and was doing it by going against the panchayat.

Narayan was warned in the past through posters issued by members of the Bhakpa group but to no avail, read the poster issued by the red rebels.

In the poster, the Naxals also mentioned the names of eight to nine other civilians who had allegedly felled trees in the forest. They threatened the civilians with dire consequences if they did not stop creating new settlements by cutting trees. They claimed the felling of trees was affecting the tribal population in the region.

"The Naxals utilize the dense forest cover to launch attacks on security personnel and flee. Initial investigations suggest the Left ultras fled to neighbouring Chhattisgarh after carrying out the attack," said a senior police officer. The Naxals involved in killing Narayan said in the poster that they are members of the Mainpur-Nuapada divisional committee.

South Western Range DIG Rajesh Uttamrao Pandit told The New Indian Express that the body of the deceased was recovered and sent to a hospital for postmortem. The red ultras are targeting innocent civilians and operations are being carried out at regular intervals to curb the Naxal menace in the region, he said.

In August last year, Naxals had allegedly shot dead a resident of Dhekunpani village under Sunabeda Widllife Sanctuary on suspicion of being a police informer. Sources said that in the last few months, Naxals have killed about two civilians each in Odisha and Chhattisgarh for different reasons.