The villagers in the Sundargarh-Simdega border area spent sleepless night on Sunday as the police and the People’s liberation Front of India (PlFI) members engaged in exchange of fire in a jungle, just five kilometres away from the border into Chhattisgarh.
Acting on a tip-off, while conducting a combing operation on the direction of Simdega SP Aseem Bikrant Minz, the police spotted a PlFI camp inside the Jungle. Before the police could swoop on them, the extremist outfit members started firing at the former.
In retaliation, the forces fired 100 rounds of bullets. While no casualty from either side was reported, the Maoist break-away members could manage to flee from the spot taking advantage of darkness.
The cops seized four motor cycles from their camp site, sources said.As the news spread, a reign of terror prevailed in the border area. It may be noted here that the PlFI was involved in numerous heinous crimes in recent past in the area.
The Extremist activists had on December 23 hacked three persons to death in a village under Bano Police Station and killed a woman ward member and her husband the next day in another village under Theteitangar Police station. Similarly, they set a JCB machine ablze on December 25 within Bano police limits.
later, the police also traced out a gun manufacturing factory in a jungle in the border area, which led to exchange of fire between them.
