Amid suspicion of Maoists' involvement in the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmananada Saraswati and four others at Jaleshpeta ashram in Orissa's Kandhamal district, the police on Wednesday issued sketches of two suspected killers.

"The crime branch has issued the sketches seeking information from the public on the two suspected persons," DGP Gopal Chandra Nanda said.

The crime branch prepared sketches of the duo on the basis of description provided by the people who were present during the killing, police sources said.

The youths, one in the age group of 20 to 25 years and the other between 30 and 35 years, were suspected to be the prime accused in the incident.

"Both the youths speak the local language as spoken by the people in Koraput district," the sources said, adding both had moustaches and big eyes.

The crime branch, which had been assigned investigation of the killing, issued the sketches 17 days after the murder.

The sketches were released a day after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik rejected the demand of CBI probe into the murder.

Patnaik had expressed confidence that the crime branch was able to arrest the culprits.

Saraswati's killing sparked communal riots across the state and largescale violence in Kandhamal where 16 people were killed and hundreds of houses damaged.