Congress panel calls Kandhamal killings cold-blooded murder

NEW DELHI: Odisha’s anti-Maoist police force Special Operations Group fired on unarmed villagers in Kandhamal district without following standard operating procedure, a Congress panel appointed to look into the July 8 incident has found.

The panel, led by former tribal affairs minister V Kishore Chandra Deo, has termed the incident "cold blooded murder" and not a stray incident but a worrying trend in the state. Five tribals, including a two-year-old child, were killed and seven injured during an anti-Maoist operation in Gumutmaha in Kandhamal district on July 8. The five-member Congress panel, comprising Deo, Jairam Ramesh, K H Muniyappa, Vincent Pala and Arun Oraon, has found that there was no crossfire between Maoists and the Special Operations Group.

Speaking to ET after the panel’s visit to the remote Odisha village, Deo said, “The police has maintained that the villagers, who were travelling in an auto after collecting their MGNREGA wages, were caught in a crossfire between the police and Maoists. But we have found that there was no such crossfire. They fired at helpless unarmed tribals. They did not follow standard operating procedures. ”

The panel’s report calls the incident a “worrying trend” and not a stray incident.