Personnel of Special Operations Group (SOG), District Voluntary Force (DVF) and Central Paramilitary forces like BSF and CRPF have intensified combing operations in the Kurub jungle under the Kalimela police station in Malkangiri district after reports of infiltration of Maoists from neighbouring Chhattisgarh.

Sources said that after the Sukma attack on April 24 in which 25 CRPF lost their lives in an ambush by the Red rebels, the security forces have launched intensive operations to flush out the rebels in Maoist-infested areas of Chhattisgarh. Due to which it is suspected that the rebels are looking for safe hideouts and trying to sneak into other neighbouring States like Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.

This can be corroborated from the fact that On Monday, the Maoists and security forces had a fierce gun battle in Kurub forest. According to sources, militants open fired at the SOG and DVF personnel while they were carrying out combing operations. The exchange of fire continued for more than three hours. The police suspect that some Maoists may have been injured or killed in the gun battle. The security personnel recovered six tiffin bombs from the encounter site.

In another incident, the Maoists killed a tribal labourer of Tangaguda village in the district dubbing him a police informer.

A group of armed rebels swooped down on the village late on Sunday night and forcibly took away the man from his home at gunpoint accusing him to be a police informer. His body with the throat slit was found at the outskirts of the village, police said. In the last couple of days, three people have been killed in the district, who the rebels claimed were police informers.