3 pistols, 7 magazines, 49 live cartilages, mobile phones recovered
Jamshedpur, Dec. 18: An activist of banned ultra outfit People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI) was killed in an encounter at forest area of Bando village under Gudri police station area of West Singhbhum district. During the encounter another ultra was also arrested. The team from district police and CRPF was involved in the encounter. The dead PLFI member was identified as Sonu Kumar Nalanda while the one arrested was Phoolchand Manda. The ultras belonged to the squad of PLFI leader Dinesh Gope.
Superintendent of Police Ajay Linda confirmed the incident and said that the police forces recovered 3 pistols, 7 magazines, 49 live cartilages and several mobile phones.
“We received secret information about some ultras of the banned outfit and hatching plan. Acting on a tip-off we succeeded in nailing the ultras hiding in the forest area. After intelligence reports alerted us we formed a team of district police and other security forces for this operation and successfully executed it,” said another police official.
Sources said that following a tip-off regarding the presence of the ultras a team comprising the jawans of district police and CRPF was sent to the spot.
Upon seeing the policemen the ultras opened fire. In the retaliation, the jawans also opened fire in which one ultra was killed and another one was caught while he was trying to flee from the spot. The remaining ultras managed to flee from the spot
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.
“Security has been beefed up in the area and they were keeping strict vigil on movement of the Naxalites. The plan is to keep a tab on the camps being operated by ultras,” said another official.
According to police, the spot where the encounter took place is close to the border of Khunti district which is considered to be a PLFI stronghold area.