KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, May 17: A squad of CPI-Maoist rebels blew up a mobile phone tower at a remote village under Goelkera thana area of West Singhbhum district about 160 km away from here on Tuesday evening.
It was a tower belonging to Airtel company installed beside a government school at Patunda village which falls in the Kolhan forest division where a big number of Naxals have been anchoring since January this year.
West Singhbhum SP, Ashutosh Shekhar confirmed the subversive act committed by the Naxals.
“Whether the mobile tower was set on fire or blown up by explosives is a matter of verification. A police party accompanied by a contingent of paramilitary forces has already set out for the Patunda village, ” said Shekhar while talking to lagatar24.com.
According to sources, Patunda village is considered to be a naxal-infested village and a strategically important place. There had been encounters between the Naxals and paramilitary forces several times in the past.
Sources said at about 6 pm on Tuesday an armed squad of Naxals arrived at the village and drove the villagers a little distance away before triggering explosives in the tower.
As the village is located in an interior area, the police got to know about the incident belatedly.
Sources said the private telecom company had installed the tower four months ago, intending to augment the telecommunication system in the region. But the Naxals’ act to blow it up was apparently out of fear as the administration is increasingly coming closer to the people living in that part of the Kolhan forest division.
It may be mentioned here that a large number of Naxals have entered into Kolhan and adjoining Porahat forest divisions having planted an unspecified number of IEDs in the forest cover since January this year, leading the police and paramilitary forces to launch a concerted operation to flush them out.
