Chaibasa:

At least four Maoists, including a woman, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district on Monday, officials said.

The encounter broke out around 5 am near Lipunga area under Gua police station limit, around 200-km from Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi, they said.

“Four Maoists were killed in the gunfight, while two have been arrested,” Jharkhand Police spokesperson and IG (Operations), Amol V Homkar, told PTI.

Homkar said that one INSAS rifle, two SLRs, three rifles (.303) and one (9mm) pistol were recovered during the search operation.

Later briefing media persons, he said that the killed Maoists were identified from the primary sources as zonal commander Kande Honhaga, a resident of Thalkobad in Chaibasa and he was carrying a bounty on his head, sub-zonal commander Singrai alias Manoj, a resident of Jaigur police station area in Chhattisgarh, area commander Surya alias Munda Devgam and a woman cadre Junga Purty alias Marla.

According to police sources, Singrai was carrying a bounty of Rs 10 lakh, Kande Rs 5 lakh and Surya Rs 2 lakh.

Singrai and Kande were IED experts in the organization. Singrai was tasked to lay and monitor IEDs in the area, the IG said.

The Maoists, who were arrested, were identified as area commander Tiger alias Pandu Hansda and Batri Devgam, he said.

Homkar said that police got a tip-off that some Maoists including Ajay Mahto, Kande and Singrai from the squads of CPI (Maoist) politburo member Misir Besra and central committee member Anal gathered near Lipunga forests to carry out some major incident.

“On the basis of the input, security forces comprising Chaibasa police, CoBRA 209, Jharkhand Jaguar and CRPF carried out a joint search operation. When the team reached the area around 5 am, Maoists attacked the search team. In self-protection, security forces also resorted to firing. The gunfight continued for about an hour,” Homkar said.

As the gunfight was over, security forces searched the area and recovered four bodies along with arms and ammunition including sophisticated weapons.

“Two Maoists who were trying to escape were arrested by the security forces,” he said.

Homkar said that Kolhan and Sarnda are considered the only bastions of the Maoists in the state. “Due to continuous operations by security forces, Maoists have shrunk to only a few places. Police were able to check their activities from all its major pockets such as Buda Pahad, Chatra, Latehar, Gumla, Lohardaga, Ranchi and Parasnath,” he said.

Terming it a “historic” achievement, Homkar asked the Maoists to surrender before the police under the state government’s surrender and rehabilitation policy.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)