Bhubaneswar: Tense situation prevailed in Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex in Jajpur district after the police and the tribals, owing allegiance to the Bisthapan Birodhi Manch (BBM), activists clashed this morning at Baligotha.
Police had to resort to a blank firing as the BBM activists and the tribals, armed with bows and arrows, pelted the police with stones to foil their attempt to arrest some tribal leaders for blocking the common corridor for the past few days.
The BBM activists have been opposing the steel plant set up by the Tata Steel at Kalinga Nagar and blocked the corridor as a mark of protest.
The authority had deployed six platoons of police force at the trouble site apprehending a law and order problem.
The tribals, sources said, had come close to the police force and started pelting them with stones forcing the force to open blank fire to disperse the mob.
Kalinga Nagar had witnessed a violent clash in January 2006 between the police and armed tribals opposing the steel plant in which 13 tribals were killed in police firing.
–Agencies