Bhubaneswar, May 20: The Kalinga Nagar massacre returned to haunt Orissa as a group of villagers clashed with security personnel of a steel plant over a boundary wall.

The villagers alleged that the guards of Bhushan Steel & Strips plant at Meramundali in Dhenkanal district had opened fire and hurled bombs, injuring seven of them.

On January 2, 13 tribals were killed and scores wounded in police firing while they were protesting against displacement caused by construction by a steel giant in Kalinga Nagar.

Residents of Sarpa-Raghunathpur near the Bhushan steel plant are opposing the construction of a wall around the 1,700-acre area acquired by the company last year. They said it would block the road that is their only link to the national highway.

Tension had been mounting for the last few months after villagers prevented company personnel from building the wall. However, Bhushan engaged a Paradip-based agency to carry out the construction. The villagers then complained to the district administration.

Things came to a head this afternoon when the agency got to work and villagers descended on the plant.

The securitymen fired in the air and used crude bombs to disperse the villagers, the police said. “We have reports of crude bombs being thrown at the spot and villagers injured by splinters,” said Dhenkanal superintendent of police B.B. Das.

Policemen have been deployed in the area. The injured are in hospital in nearby Hindol.

“I had convened a meeting tomorrow to discuss the issue and it could have been peacefully resolved. Now it seems the plant officials unnecessarily used force. We will take action against the guilty,” said Dhenkanal collector Usha Padhee.

Local MP Tathagat Satpathy said the company’s securitymen and hired goons fired at the villagers and threw bombs. “There are several bullet injuries,” he said, threatening to raise the matter in Parliament.

Ajay Das, a general manager of the company, refused to comment, saying he was not aware of the incident.