Inter-state bus services hit

ROURKELA: Vulnerable pockets in the vicinity of Saranda forest in neighbouring Jharkhand felt the impact of the Maoist bandh even as highly alert security forces patrolled along the Odisha-Jharkhand border on Wednesday.Reports said inter-state buses originating from Rourkela to Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh kept off the roads, while shops remained shut at the bordering Jareikela area of Sundargarh district. Police stations in the Maoist-infested  Sundargarh district including those at Bisra, Bondamunda and Lathikata besides eight police stations in Bonai sub-division were on high alert.Rourkela-based DIG (WR) YK Jethwa said that adequate security measures were put in place and no untoward incident reported from Odisha side. Security has been beefed up to protect vital installations and security camps and the cops were in touch with their Jharkhand counterparts, he said.Reports from the Maoist hub of Saranada forest in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district said that the forested pocket witnessed uneasy calm but the day remained incident free.Jharkhand security forces remained on their toes against the backdrop of Maoist violence reported from the Saranda region. The Maoists had detained the Bilaspur-Tata passenger train and fixed a can bomb to it, killing a person. There was also an exchange of firing on Tuesday morning elsewhere in Saranda region.Sources saw the increased activities of the Guerillas, owing allegiance to the Jharkhand Regional Committee of Maoists, as a move to regain lost ground in their erstwhile stronghold in Saranda.It is learnt, the weakened position of Maoists in Saranda has come as a breather for the Rourkela police manning vulnerable pockets of Sundargarh district as no major violence occurred in the past nine months. The shutdown closes at 12 midnight on Wednesday and normalcy would return on Thursday morning.