Bhubaneswar, Sep 19 (IANS) A forest guard was Monday shot dead by Maoist rebels in Orissa's Bargarh district, police said.
About 15 to 20 Maoists dragged Narayana Duan, 33, from Jaipur village, located in the foothills of Gandhamardan hill and killed him in a nearby area, local police official B.K. Bihari told IANS.
The motive behind the murder was not clear, he said.
Maoists are active in more than half of Orissa's 30 districts. It is the first murder of a government servant by Maoists in Bargarh, around 500 km from Bhubaneswar, he said.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been demanding inclusion of Bargarh and three near-by districts in western parts of the state under the central scheme, Security Related Expenditure (SRE), for Maoist-affected areas.