Author:
Publication: The Times of India
Date: February 18, 2008
The Maoists' brutality peaked during their
attack on Nayagarh on Friday night. They burnt one policeman alive, stabbed
and shot hiding cops and castrated a constable. Rarely has such sadism been
witnessed in the state.
Sweeper Bhola Nayak, posted at Nayagarh police
station, dared to argue with the marauders after his chief, ASI Dandapani
Mishra, was riddled with bullets. For this, he was set ablaze, police said.
Constable Sontosh Bai had shot at the ultras
and managed to reach a vantage point atop the reserve police office near the
police station, but the terrorists used a ladder to climb the building and
shot him from behind. They then castrated him.
At Mahipur police outpost, ASI R K Sahu was
resting when a group of Maoists struck. Unarmed and with only three men at
his disposal, Sahu and his men were unable to escape as the ultras had surrounded
the building and were firing indiscriminately. Sahu hid under the bed, while
the three others hid behind the walls. But the guerrillas entered the buildings,
stabbed Sahu repeatedly with bayonets, dragged him out and shot him from point
blank range. Watchman Ananda Nayak was similarly killed. Constable P C Jani
is battling injuries, while a bleeding guard Chintamani Sahu managed to flee.
A few kilometres away, Srinivas Behera was
manning the Nuagaon police station alone. As he tried to escape, he was caught
and hacked to pieces. Drill SI Somanath Swain, havildars Shatrughana Panda
and R K Pradhan and trainee sepoy Reuben Ekka also fell to Maoist bullets
at the Police Training School, as did other colleagues.
The police personnel were unprepared and unarmed.
Some fought back, but they were totally outnumbered, a senior cop said, describing
the Maoist offensive in Nayagarh as the most well-organised in Orissa.
A woman constable, Sukanti Pradhan, fell after
being hit and was taken for dead. "Many Maoists trampled on me,'' she
said at Nayagarh district HQ hospital. She has no bullet wounds, but is severely
bruised. TNN
