Landmine goes off, 2 cops die

KORAPUT: Two policemen of Koraput Police,  Sashikant Rout and Sunil Singh, died in a landmine blast near Alangpada, a small village on Ongelguda ghat road between Lamtaput and Onakadelli in the district, on Sunday.The incident occurred at around nine in the morning when the two policemen along with two of their colleagues, Monu Harijan and Tuna Mishra, were engaged in defusing two landmines earlier planted by Maoists. While they could defuse one of them, the other went off killing Rout and Singh on the spot. Harijan and Mishra are stated to be safe.Floral tributes were paid to the  policemen at the police parade ground here in the presence of Additional Director- General of Police Sanjeev Marik, DIG (south-west range) Soumendra Priyadarshi, SP Avinash Kumar and Collector Sachin Jadhav.