PPSS activists killed in explosion

The police said that deceased were involved in the illegal act of bomb making and they died when a bomb went off accidentally.

However, the villagers and families of the deceased activists, claimed that the district administration want to hasten the process of land grab for the POSCO steel plant project and they fear for their lives for opposing the project.

To find out the truth, on March 9, 2013 , a 12 member team consisting of human rights activists, journalists, academicians, democratic rights and civil liberty activists, conducted a fact finding visit to Patana and Gobindapur villages of Dhinkia Panchayat in Jagatsinghpur District of Odisha.

Dhinkia panchayat has been in the forefront of the movement against the government’s land acquisition process for the proposed 12-million-tonne integrated steel plant project by Posco with anti-Posco protesters putting up a stiff resistance for quite some time.

A peaceful movement against land acquisition for POSCO project has relied on mass protest, litigation, publicity and demonstration for over seven years and had earned support and appreciation from democratic forces from all parts of the country and abroad is now being subjected to violent attacks and terrorisation.

The bomb incident of 20 th June 2008 killed Tapan Mandal of the PPSS. On 14 December 2011 a pro-POSCO person Duryodhan Swain was killed also in a bomb incident. Now three PPSS activists have been killed. This is in addition to several other incidents of violence.