RANCHI: In an early morning gun-battle on Sunday, the Special Task Force (STF), formed to take on Maoists in Jharkhand, gunned down one People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI) Maoist and injured another in Simdega.
Senior police officials informed that five Maoists have also been arrested by the STF while huge caches of arms and ammunition have also been recovered from them. Simdega SP confirmed that combing operation was still on to find out the Maoists who escaped deep into the jungles after the encounter.
“One Maoist belonging to PLFI has been gunned down by the STF while another member of the group, who claims himself as Area Commander of Bano area in Simdega, Praveen Kandulna, has received serious bullet injuries and has been rushed to the hospital,” said Simdega SP Sanjeev Kumar.
Five other members of the squad have also been arrested and are being interrogated by the police, he added. The SP further added that huge cache of arms and ammunitions, including one AK-47, four rifles, one county made pistol along with a huge number of live cartridges have also been recovered from them.
The encounter took place at 6 am in the morning when the STF was on a search operation following an input that a group of Maoists have been spotted in the area. “The encounter took place deep into the jungles near Benduchuan village under Jaldega Police Station at around 6 am which lasted for over one a half hour,” said the SP. Identity of the Maoist killed in the encounter, however, is yet to be ascertained, he added.