Koraput, Feb 2: Today with another body being sighted of another Odisha State Armed Police (OSAP) official, who had gone missing after the blast, the death toll due to the landmine blast by Maoists near Mungarbhumi on Sunki ghat here close to Andhra Pradesh border has mounted to 8. Yesterday, bodies of around seven others had been found. The name of the deceased are Habildar Arun Kumar Nayak, Ganesh Prasad Saha, Somanath Sisa, Sanjay Kumar Dash, Subarna Kumar Raj and Pradipta Kumar Rout. Among these seven, four had been recovered from the blast by the cops and three other died in the hospital later. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had expressed his condolences and has termed the incident a “act of cowardice”.
The incident happened when altogether 13 personnel, mostly police drivers, were on their way to Cuttack in a truck for training when the landmine went off. The seriously injured were admitted in hospitals in Koraput in Odisha and Visakhapatanam in Andhra Pradesh. This was said Koraput DIG S Syani, adding to it that it is suspected that the blast was conducted by the Maoists present in areas at the Andhara-Odisha border.
