Chaibasa/Jharkhand: A deputy commandant of CRPF’s elite COBRA battalion was injured in an encounter with Maoists and three powerful IEDs were recovered from Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district Wednesday. A police official said.
The injured deputy commandant of 209 COBRA battalion, Deepak Kumar Tiwari was airlifted to a hospital in Ranchi and is said to be in stable condition, West Singhbhum superintendent of police Ashutosh Shekhar said.
The encounter with the outlawed CPI(Maoist) took place in Rela Paral Pahad under Goilkera police station when the personnel of COBRA batallion, Jharkhand Jaguar and the district armed police were on combing operation in areas affected by the Left wing extremists on Wednesday morning.
Both COBRA and Jharlkhand Jaguar forces are mandated to carry out anti-Maoist operations.
The Maoists opened fire on the security forces, which was returned, he said.
Blood stains were sighted at the spot during the search operation that followed, indicating that Maoists were also injured. But none of them was found, the SP said.
The search operation had to be halted due to heavy downpour. It was resumed later after the rain stopped.
The security personnel recovered a five kg improvised explosive device from Rela Paral Tuesday.
A joint anti-Maoist operation is on in the district since January 11 following intelligence input that top Maoist leaders, including Misir Besra alias Pradhan da, Ramesh da alias Anal da, Manoj da alias Akash da and CPI(Maoist) politburo member Pramod Mishra were carrying out ultra left activities from the core of the Kolhan area in the district, police said.
All these LWE leaders carry a bounty of Rs one crore each.
Since the anti-LWE operation began six months ago several Maoists surrendered before the district police and the security personnel seized a large number of arms and ammunition. Police also recovered over 200 IEDs planted by Maoists to target security personnel involved in combing operations.
Eight villagers, including a 10-year-old boy and two elderly women, were killed in IED explosion in Tonto and Goilkera during the period, police said.
PTI
