We have received reports that gunmen identified as working for Tata Steel shot dead Amin Banara, a tribal youth and a member of the Visthapan Virodhi Manch in Kalinganagar. According to members of the Visthapan Virodhi Manch, seven gunmen led by a notorious Tata hitman, arrived in a Toyota Innova, shot the youth dead near the project site and then the car raced off.

At present, there is no construction going on at the site. The angry local people took the body to the Duburi Chowk, a main intersection on the highway that has been blockaded for more than 14 months. Villagers say that the violence is part of a strategy worked out by the State, the police and Tata Steel. Tata Steel's hired goons had threatened them last week that work will commence, and the leaders of the resistance would be systematically eliminated.It may be recalled that on January 2, 2006, Orissa police gunned down 13 adivasis in the presence of Tata Steel officials, in an attempt to quell resistance to the forcible takeover of adivasi land to accommodate a massive steel plant for the Tatas.