At least 18 policemen, belonging to the Orissa Special Armed Police, were injured on Thursday evening when a group of Naxalites triggered a landmine blast near Kolnara (Rayagada district) on the Rayagada-Berhampur state highway.
The incident occurred in front of the Majhigouri Institute of Technology, an engineering college, about 15km from Rayagada.
The ultras targeted a police van carrying a sports team of the OSAP's third battalion from Berhampur to Koraput, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (southwestern range) Bidhu Bhusan Mishra told reporters in Bhubaneswar.
There were twenty persons in the van.
Three of the injured were shifted to the MKCG Medical College Hospital at Berhampur while the rest were admitted to the district headquarters hospital at Rayagada.
On Wednesday night, ultras of the Praja Guerrilla Army had held up vehicles, hijacked a bus, fired at another bus, ransacked a house, burnt down a tractor and two motorcycles at Badachampi village in the same area.
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