Odisha ministers visit Malkangiri as tribal-Bengali clashes affect MV-26 village.
Internet access suspended for 12 hours; one man arrested in tribal woman murder case.
BSF and Odisha Armed Police deployed; opposition BJD forms fact-finding team.
Two Odisha ministers on Thursday visited Malkangiri district, where communal tensions recently erupted, and reviewed the security situation as the administration extended the suspension of internet services by another 12 hours.
Deputy Chief Minister K V Singh Deo and MSME Minister Gokulananda Mallick reached the district headquarters and chaired a meeting with senior officials, including the Collector, ADGP (Naxal operations), DIG (Southern Range) and the SP, to assess the situation in MV-26 village. According to PTI, officials informed the DyCM that no violence has been reported in MV-26 in the last 60 hours.
The clashes began when a tribal mob from neighbouring Rakhelguda village allegedly attacked the Bengali settlement area on Sunday and Monday. The unrest followed the recovery of the headless body of a tribal woman from the Poteru riverbank on 4 December. Suspicion fell on a man from MV-26, whose severed head was discovered 15 kilometres away on Wednesday, reported PTI.
In a Home department notification, the administration said: “As per the request of Collector and District Magistrate, the Home Department extends prohibition of the use and access of social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, X and any other through internet and other medium of data services for another 12 hours till 12:00 midnight of today (11.12.2025) in Malkangiri district.”
Singh Deo also met representatives of the Malkangiri Bengali Samaj (MBS) and the District Adivasi Samaj Mahasangh at the collector’s office. Both groups submitted memoranda and discussed their grievances, while agreeing to cooperate in restoring peace. Speaking after the meeting, Singh Deo emphasised maintaining law and order and preventing further escalation.
The MBS expressed concern over the safety of Bengali settlers, who have lived in the tribal-dominated district for six decades following rehabilitation by the Central government in the 1960s. They demanded a high-level inquiry into the MV-26 violence and the Rakhelguda murder case, and called for the arrest of those responsible.
During the riot, every household in the Bengali settlement was attacked, the MBS said. “The people were saved as they fled from the scene, but their houses were destroyed and torched by the mob. All the houses were burned to ashes. After the attack, the way houses were damaged and burnt, some evidence was found of the use of dynamite and gelatin. We cannot deny the involvement of Maoist ultras behind such an attack,” said MBS president Gouranga Karmakar.
The MBS also demanded that the government provide seeds, fertilisers and other essentials free of cost for the upcoming cultivation season, as residents have lost everything.
Tribals, in turn, alleged that non-tribals were forcibly encroaching on tribal lands, with the influx of outsiders between 1970 and 1980 increasing crime in Malkangiri. They also demanded the eviction of Bangladeshi settlers.
The District Adivasi Samaj Mahasangh petitioned the DyCM, claiming that non-tribals are fraudulently acquiring tribal land and encroaching on community property. They requested that the family of the deceased tribal woman be granted land rights over the plot she cultivated. “She was killed over the land dispute, and her family should be given rights over that piece of land,” the tribals said.
Police have arrested a 42-year-old man from MV-26 in connection with the murder of the tribal woman over a sharecropping dispute, PTI reported.
Meanwhile, the opposition BJD has formed a fact-finding team under party president Naveen Patnaik’s instructions to assess the situation on the ground. “The team has been entrusted with the responsibility of visiting the affected areas, assessing the ground situation, and submitting a detailed report to the party president,” the party said in a release.
(With inputs from PTI)
