Materials recovered from the Maoists’ camp after the encounter killing in Malkangiri on Saturday

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 15: A National Investigation Agency (NIA) team has reached Malkangiri scouting for detailed information about the 13 Maoists killed in yesterday’s encounter with the police in the Silakota forests.

The two-member team wants to know if the slain rebels, some of whom belonged to Chhattisgarh, were involved in the May 25 attack on a Congress convoy in the neighbouring state’s Darbha valley.

“They came from Jagdalpur. They are making investigations,” said Malkangiri police chief Akhileshwar Singh, who led yesterday’s operation against the rebels.

There has been growing speculation about the slain Maoists’ connection with the Chhattisgarh incident being probed by the NIA. However, Odisha police, so far, have refused to confirm if the rebels killed in the Silakota forests of Malkangiri were in any way linked to the Darbha valley ambush that had left 27 persons, including some top leaders of the Chhattisgarh Congress, dead.

Singh said police teams from Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh had also reached the district to identify the bodies. While combing operations have been intensified on Malkangiri’s borders with the two neighbouring states, the district police are interrogating one person detained in the wake of yesterday’s operation. The man, however, is yet to reveal anything worthwhile, said sources.

Yesterday’s operation, which is being touted as the state police’s biggest success in its battle against the Maoists, was remarkable for the fact that it was carried out without the support of paramilitary forces. Intelligence gathering, though a difficult exercise in districts such as Malkangiri because of their poor mobile phone connectivity, was foolproof in this case.

Without pinpointed information about the movement of the Maoists it would not have been possible for the Special Operations Group and District Voluntary Force jawans led by the district police chief to strike against the rebels with precision.

The success of the police has also sent out a strong message to the local tribal people, who have been supporting the Maoists. This will make it hard for the radicals to indulge in major recruitments in the area. Once the tribal base of the rebels is destroyed, half their strength would be gone and they would be left with only two options — surrender or face death at the hands of the security forces.

Buoyed by the success, the state police are likely to launch similar operations against the Maoists in other areas such as Koraput and Rayagada. “We want to strike before they get time to regroup,” said a senior cop.