By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : Maoist rebels Thursday damaged the control rooms of two mobile phone towers and a signal panel of a railway station in Orissa’s Koraput district, police said.
The attacks came as union Home Minister P. Chidambaram is slated to visit the region Thursday evening to review the police preparedness in taking on the Maoists rebels.
The rebels set fire to the control rooms of the mobile phone towers at Kakiriguma village and also damaged a signal panel at the railway station near the village, police said.
“The control rooms of the two mobile towers and the signal panel board have been damaged,” Deputy Inspector General of Police Sanjeeb Panda said.
Koraput district, some 500 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, is considered a Maoist stronghold.
The rebels had attacked the bauxite mine of state owned NALCO in the same district April 12. At least 10 Central Industrial Security Force personnel were killed in the attack.
At least 125 villages in the district have been cut off from the rest of the state since June 16 after Maoists felled more than 30 trees on three roads that connect the region to the district headquarters of Koraput.