Once again, Pahadi Cheetah, a Maoist outfit, struck back at Sundargarh after a brief lull of a couple of months in unleashing a reign of terror by continuing its killing spree.
On Tuesday night, the members of the dreaded Maoist outfit shot dead four persons in the Talasara police station area, 140 km from here, suspecting them to be police informers. The gruesome killing has spread panic in the area.
This time the victims have been two businessmen – Niru Singh and Raja Singh of Tangara village. They were killed after being dragged out of their houses, said police. Both of them had earlier received death threats from the gang, added police. Similarly, Bimal Tirki of Pindapathata village and Goshner Bara of Barahadema village were also murdered by the gang on the same night.
It is to be mentioned here that on February 9 last, the Maoist outfit members had gunned down two villagers under the same police station, while police had gunned down one of their members in an encounter. Similarly, on February 16, two Maoists, Sunil Toppo, and Bijay Dung were nabbed by the cops in a joint operation by the Odisha and Jharkhand police.
In another successful bid, Gumla police of Jharkhand on March 22 had recovered arms and ammunition following the arrest of three members of the outfit Sukhram Kharia, Santosh Sahu from Koinara village and lalit Sahu from Bharda village.
Two weeks ago, disgusted with the killing by the Maoists, irate villagers had set on fire two criminals suspecting them members of the outfit in a bordering village between Odisha and Jharkhand.
After the recent heinous killing, Sundargarh and Jharkhand police have beefed up their combing operations in the area to nab the criminals, disclosed sources.