Group clashes leave houses gutted, properties vandalized in Odisha villages

The sleepy villages in Odisha’s Malkangiri district, located at the southernmost tip of the state, witnessed a spectre of violence and arson in the last 24 hours with one group fighting a pitched battle against another forcing the authorities to deploy Border Security Force (BSF) and armed police personnel.

The situation continued to be tense but under control. Security has been stepped up in the area to restore order. Though the clashes involved tribals and Bengali-speaking people, it was not an ethnic clash, said a senior police official.

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Violence erupted last night over the recovery of a decapitated body of a tribal woman reported missing for the last one week. The main grouse of the group that went on rampage, torching houses and damaging properties, was that the murder was perpetrated by some people of the rival group.

Hundreds of tribals armed with traditional weapons from Rakhelguda village barged into nearby MV-26 village, principally housing Bengali-speaking refugee settlers. Around 50 houses have been set afire as inhabitants of the refugee settlement fled the village fearing more violent attacks, the official added.

Prohibitory orders under BNS-163 have been clamped in a 10-km radius of the troubled villages. A government-run residential school for SC and ST children besides other schools in the area has been shut till further order as a precautionary measure, concluded the officials.