Jamshedpur : The police and para-military forces intensified the combing operation sensing activities of the Naxals at Sonua block in the West Singhbhum district, about 120 kilometres away from here last evening.
According to sources, the encounter that started from late in the Monday evening, continued till today evening. In the operation, two companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) participated.
A joint security team comprising the state police and CRPF were combing the Maoist stronghold of Saranda forest when the ultras attacked them.
When contacted, another senior police official informed that two companies of CRPF moved towards Sonua and entered into the jungle.
“During the search for the training camp for hours together, the CRPF jawans were able to locate the tents set up inside the jungle, but before they could reach the spot to the camp, they were fired upon from the hill top side,� said he informed.
Another police official informed that the rebels left the tents with food-grains, uniforms and other material behind. In fact, the combing operation is still on, and unless the forces return back, the clear picture of the encounter site cannot be explained.
It may be mentioned here that Sonua is a part of rebels’ corridor is the district of West Singhbhum. The place is covered with dense jungle, the Maoists consider it an safe place for holding meetings or organising training camps on regular basis.
Notably, Saranda was a liberated zone for Maoists till August-end this year . They had established the headquarters of Eastern Regional Bureau ( ERB) of the outlawed outfit. The rebels used to run more than a training camps in core areas of the forest including Bitkelsoya, Baliba, Thalkobad , Tirilposi, Bundijora and Ratamati.
About 10,000 CRPF personnel had participated in the last operation — Anaconda– which began on July 31 and continued till September 1 this year during which the ERB headquarter was destroyed and all the training camps were razed.
A CRPF’s ( 196th Battallion) official deployed in Saranda said that a section of rebels is still hiding in the forest cover of Saranda . ” The triggering of the landmines is their expression of anger against the operation which almost eliminated them from the place which the rebels claimed to be a liberated zone,” he said.
