Bhubaneswar, May 18: Two Maoists, who happen to be father and son, from the Ranaba-Barada forests in Kandhamal district were arrested today following an intensified combing operation.

Sources said that the duo, Ramesh and Jitendra, were involved in many cases, including the attack on village guard Pitabas Pradhan sometime ago. They had also been wanted in connection with a loot in Barada forest.

“They were working for the Ghumsar division of the Maoists. They were nabbed during the operation which had been intensified during the past few months,” said a senior official, adding that increased rebel activities in Kandhamal had become a cause of concern.

The Maoists, who killed a police constable during a recent encounter in the district, have been trying hard to expand their base in Kandhmal which borders Rayagada, a known rebel bastion.

“In fact, rebels from Rayagada often enter Kandhmal. The Maoists appear to have become more active in the district since killing of VHP leader Laxmananand Saraswati in 2008,” said an official.

The VHP leader was gunned down along with four associates at the Jalaspeta ashram in Kandhmal in August 2008 triggering a wave of communal violence in the district. While around 50 persons were killed in the riots, thousands were forced to flee their homes. Police officials continue to maintain that Saraswati’s killing was handiwork of the Maoists whose top leaders Savyasachi Panda and Azad had planned the carnage at the ashram.

In fact, the second chargesheet, filed by the crime branch in connection with Saraswati’s killing, has seven Maoists, including Panda and Azad, in focus. Significantly, Azad, who had been operating in Kandhmal for the past few years, was spotted recently in Bhubaneswar, but managed to give police the slip. However, senior police officials claimed that they were close to apprehending the rebel who had come to Bhubaneswar for treatment of his wife who was now in police custody.

The Orissa government has upped the ante in its war against the Maoists since the release of former Malkangiri collector R. Vineel Krishna from the rebels’ custody in February.

Instead of going soft on the rebels, as was being expected after it had agreed to concede some of their demands to seek Krishna’s release, the government has now asked the security forces to go all out against them.