E-Paper
Security forces gun down a Maoist area commander in Chatra
The encounter began in Kurkheta forests, Chatra district, when security personnel from CRPF, the specialised CoBRA unit of the CRPF, and other policemen were carrying out an anti-Maoist operation early in the morning.
A CPI (Maoist) area commander was shot dead in an encounter with security forces in the border area between Jharkhand and Bihar on Friday. The security forces also recovered a highly sophisticated weapon from the encounter site during a subsequent search operation.
According to police, the encounter began in Kurkheta forests, under the Zori-Hunterganj police station of Chatra district, when security personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the specialised CoBRA unit of the CRPF, and other policemen were carrying out an anti-Maoist operation early in the morning. The operation followed a specific intelligence input about the assembly of Maoists in the bordering areas.
The security forces managed to gun down the area commander identified as Chander Singh Bhokta aka Ganju during a gun battle that lasted for more than three hours. However, the CPI (Maoist) zonal commander Alok, who was leading the Maoist outfit People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), managed to escape.
The deceased Ganju belonged to Birlutudag village under the Rajgir police station of the district, and he had been associated with the Maoist squad in the Koleshwari zone on Jharkhand-Bihar borders, said the police.
Chatra additional superintendent of police (operations) Nigam Prasad said, “The encounter has ended and the body of the killed ultra has been retrieved. The search operation in the area also yielded an Insas rifle.” He also claimed to have inflicted more damage on the Maoist group in the fierce exchange of fire.
Hazaribagh deputy inspector general of police Pankaj Kamboj and Chatra superintendent of police Akhilesh B Verior rushed to the encounter site with reinforcements.
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