About 25 armed Maoists organised a meeting of youths at Bhurukundi village under the Purunakot police limits in the Satkosia wildlife sanctuary in Angul district on Friday evening exhorting the youths to join their cadre.
Reports said the Red rebels, who came from dense forests, held a 20-minute-long meeting from around 6 pm on the village road. They persuaded the youths to join them and offered to pay them a monthly salary of `10,000 each.
About 40 young men and women participated in the meeting out of fear of the Maoists, sources said.
The Maoists threatened to blast the village if the youths do not join their organisation. They Reds retreated to the dense forests after the meeting.
Earlier also, Maoists had held a meeting in the village on Tuesday.
Notably, thousands of villagers from six panchayats in Malkangiri district had participated in a Maoist-organised congregation at Jantri village in the cutoff region of the district on the evening of October 1 wherein the Reds had asked the people to boycott the panchayat elections due early next year.