Bhubaneswar, May 25: Maoists shot dead a special police officer last night after he refused to quit his job as demanded by them.

Special police officers are tribal youths who assist the regular police force.

Sources said around 20 armed rebels gunned down Kanhu Charan Madhi, 25, at Kattakonda village under Kalimela police station while he was sleeping on the verandah of his house.

Madhi, who was attached to the office of sub-divisional police officer, Malkangiri, had come home on three-day leave as his wife had delivered a baby a few days ago.

The victim was on the hit list of the Maoists for the past sometime.

The rebels had asked him to quit the job and leave the village. It was in view of the threat from the Maoists that he was posted in Malkangiri town.

This is not the first incident of a special police officer being killed by the rebels.

Last year they had murdered another tribal youth, Ajit Sodhi, who was assisting the police force as a special police officer.

“We have around 700 special police officers in the district. Almost all of them are under threat from the rebels who don’t want them to work,” said Malkangiri superintendent of police Akhileswar Singh.

Combing by security forces in the area was intensified following the incident.

Sources said that the government was planning to step up its drive against the Maoists throughout the district, which borders both Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Director general of police (DGP) Prakash Mishra visited Malkangiri recently to assess the situation in the district, especially the inaccessible areas that include around 30 panchayats, earlier this month.

Mishra, the first DGP of the state in a decade to visit the Chitrakonda area, considered a Maoist stronghold, had also expressed hope that the situation would improve as there were BSF camps on both sides of river Gurupriya over which the construction of a bridge has been pending for several years.

The area, officially described as “cut-off area” had come into focus in February 2011 when former Malkangiri collector R. Vineel Krishna was kidnapped from there by a group of rebels.

He was released after spending nearly a week in rebel custody and after the state government had met some demands made by the Maoists.