Vandalism: Maoist blast Dahikhal railway station in Rayagada

By Pramod Sahukar

Munigudua, March 31: A group of suspected Maoists on Thursday night blasted the Dahikhal railway control room near Muniguda in Odisha’s Rayagada district by triggering power improvised explosive device.

According to reports, the rebels numbering around 10-12, entered the railway station at around 12.15 am and threatened the station master to get out of his cabin. They also snatched away his walky-talky device.

Thereafter, the radicals blasted the control room that resulted complete disruptions in railway traffic on the the route.

No reports of human injury or any other major loss was reported from the blast site.

Before the rebels fled the station, they took away another walky-talky from the driver of a goods train standing on the platform.

In the posters and banners left at the site, the rebels said they stormed the railway station to send a message how non-Odia officers were ruling the state. They named Odisha police director general of police K B Singh, inspector general (operations) D S Kutte and deputy inspector general S Saini as the non-Odia police officers who they alleged were harassing the local people in the name of anti-Maoist operations.

Senior police officials have rushed the spot with anti-bomb disposal squads.

The train services which have been disrupted on the route include 12843 Puri -Ahmedabad Express, 22838 Ernakulam –Hatia, 58530 Visakhapatnam -Durg passenger, 58302 Koraput -Sambalpur passenger, 58528 Visakhapatnam -Raipur passenger, 18437 Bhubaneswar -Junagarh Express and 17482 Tirupati – Bilaspur Express.