Alleged church sponsored Maoists gunned down a 40-year-old Sangh worker, Dhanu Pradhan, in Kumbharagaon village under Brahmanigaon area of riot-hit Kandhamal district on November 5. Pradhan was in the area to inspect some work of an under construction school while three unidentified Maoists, who were in plain cloth, fired at Pradhan and shot dead. The Red Rebels allegedly hired by local church fired 12 rounds at Pradhan and fled away from the spot. The list of 14 Hindu activists was pasted on a tree on Kandhamal-Gajapati border near Adaba. During last December, 2007 riot Brahamanigaon was worst affected. But this time the area was left untouched during the recent violence aftermath the killing of Swami Laxmananand Saraswati on August 23. Kandhamal has porous borders at Adaba in Gajapati, Gunupur in Rayagada, Soroda in Ganjam and from all corners of Deogarh district. (FOC)
