Ranchi: The
anti-insurgency operations of
Jharkhand police yield rich dividend in past three months. The state police and the CRPF have eliminated 16 insurgents in the first three months this year as compared to 12 killed in 2017. With a re-strategised policy that includes hot pursuits of insurgents and deployment of small action teams (SAT) in counter-extremism operations, the police are chasing down the prominent extremists squads with considerable successes.
A total of 17 encounters have taken place between Jharkhand police and the ínsurgents so far this year. The rebels killed in encounters are from various organisations including CPI (Maoist), TPC, PLFI and JJMP.
Police records shows that seven rebels were killed in Latehar, five in Palmu and two each in Hazaribag and Khunti districts this year.
In Latehar, CPI (Maoist) sub-zonal commander Birbal Oroan was killed in an
encounter with the police at Bhitar Pandra village under Garu police station on February 2. Two PLFI members were eliminated near Regde village in Khunti district during an encounter with a joint police team of Ranchi and Khunti district on March 29.
Inspector general (operations) Ashish Batra said, “We have reframed our plan in the last one year. Now we are engaging more small action teams in operations. We are pursuing the major squads aggressively. In the case of four sub-zonal commanders killed in Latehar last Wednesday, police had an encounter with Ravindra Ganjhu gang in Gumla district for 10 days. There was not much seizure of arms after the encounter. Police, however, continued its chase and finally managed to eliminate four top leaders in Latehar. The pursuit for remaining cadres of the gang is still going on.”
Police said that as many as 135 rebels have been arrested and five, including a zonal commander who was a close associate of top leader Kishanji and Sudhakaran, have surrendered in the first three months. The major achievement was the arrest of 15 rebels from Akbakitand under Pirtand police station in Giridih district on March 15. Among the nabbed rebels were one special area committee member Sunil Oroan, sub-zonal commander Charlis and sub-zonal commander Sohan Bhuiyyan.
Cops have recovered 37 police weapons, including six regular weapons, 64 country-made weapons, 4,608 ammunitions, 138 IEDs, 501kg of explosives and 701 detonators from the extremists. Police have also destroyed one training camp and three bunkers of the
Maoists. During the operation levy of Rs 9.75 lakhs have been recovered.
