COBRA jawan injured in gun battle with rebels at Chaibasa

Jamshedpur: In a fierce gun battle between security forces and ultras of banned outfit CPI (Maoist) COBRA jawan of CRPF�s 203 battalion sustained injuries in Sangajata forest under Chaibasa Police Station area of the West Sinbhum district on Wednesday.

The injured jawan, Kamlesh Kumar was later sent to Ranchi through a helicopter. Police sources said that the Maoists in the area are being led by their local commander Misir
Besra.

Police sources said a joint team of the COBRA, Jharkhand Jaguar, CRPF and district police were conducting search operations in the forest when they came under firing by the maoists in which a jawan was injured.

�Several rounds of fierce encounters between the naxals and the para-military forces have taken place at jungle. The insurgency operation jointly with CRPF, currently going on, between villages on the bordering Sonua and Khuti in Porahat block in West Singhbhum,� said an official. The area has been sealed and a combing operation has been launched to flush out the Maoist guerrillas from the area.

The police and paramilitary forces have started frisking commuters in the bordering areas. At some places common people are also being interrogated by police and paramilitary force on suspicion. Forces have been deployed in strategic locations.

Police said that the security has been beefed up in the area and they were keeping strict vigil on movement of the Naxlites. �There has been a substantial increase in Maoist activities in this. We are not much concerned about small acts of violence because these activities can be controlled by us, but the bigger attacks are worrisome,� said a security official.