Saturday, March 25 2006 14:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Parlakhemundi (Orissa): Combing operations by security forces were continuing in the forests of Gajapati district after the daring Naxalite attack on Ramgiri Udayagiri town in which four persons, including three policemen, were killed.

There was no report about the two government officials including the officer-in-charge of the R Udayagiri police station who had been abducted yesterday by the heavily armed Naxalites as they retreated into the jungles, official sources said.

"The combing operation has been intensified and efforts to ensure the release of the abducted officials are on," DIG of police (southern range), SK Upadhyay, said.

The attackers had abducted the OIC Ranjan Kumar Mallick and the jail superintendent Rabinarayan Sethi while retreating to the jungles.

The ultras also shot dead three policemen in a gunbattle near the Orissa Special Armed Police camp while another policeman was injured.

One more person, a daily labourer of the public works department, was killed and six others injured when a landmine went off at Kankadaguda village, about 10 km from R Udayagiri, yesterday afternoon.

Meanwhile, bomb disposal squads have been pressed into service to search for hidden landmines on the roads and places where the road had been blocked by fallen trees and boulders. Normalcy was slowly returning to R Udayagiri town which was stunned by yesterday's surprise attack. The main market area in the town, which remained closed yesterday, did not function today with people preferring to stay indoors.