Guwahati: A young journalist was killed in a Maoist landmine explosion in Odisha’s Kalahandi district on Saturday.
According to reports, Kandhamal-Kalahandi-Boudh-Nayagarh (KKBN), a Maoist organization is suspected to be behind the explosion. The target however was the police and not the journalist.
An improvised explosive device (IED) had been placed near the poster.
The deceased was identified as Rohit Kumar Biswal, a resident of the Kalahandi district’s Madanpur-Rampur area. He was a reporter for a local newspaper at the time, reports claimed.
The further added that Biswal had received information from sources that Maoists had allegedly pasted posters near Karlakhunta Bridge in Mohangiri, which is inside the Madanpur Rampur police station’s jurisdiction. The red rebels had asked the people to boycott the Panchayat election in the state.
Following the inputs, Rohit rushed to the spot to collect the information and in the process, he started to click pictures of the Maoist posters
However, he was blown away by a high-intensity blast following which he died on the spot.
It may be mentioned that Biswal was blown away after he accidentally stepped on the land mines planted by the Maoists to target the security forces.
Meanwhile, both the National Union of Journalists (NUJ)(I) and the Odisha Union of Journalists (OUJ) have strongly condemned the incident and it has been also reported to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and PCI.
It needs to be mentioned that NUJ (I) has further demanded full protection from journalists working in the Naxal affected areas of the Country. It has also reiterated its demand for the enactment of the Journalist Protection Act in the country.