In a major achievement for the Ranchi Police on the first day of the two-day shutdown called by the CPI (Maoists), four PlFI rebels including a woman have been reported from the Devgai village near Tupudana on Saturday while at least three of them managed to flee in the nearby jungles. The police have also recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunitions from their possession.
On a tip-off about the movement of the PlFI cadres in the area, a small team lead by SSP Ranchi Saket Kumar Singh along with Tupudana and Angara police first cordoned off the area and raided the village in the afternoon.
“Four PlFI members have been arrested from the village Deogai of Tupudana near Ranchi including a woman friend of Area Commander Tulsi Pahan. The raid was conducted by OC Angara and Tupudana,” confirmed SSP Saket Kumar Singh.
As soon as the police reached the spot, the rebels who were retiring under a tree near the village, started firing on the police team but could not stand for long as they were soon overpowered by the police and surrendered before them.
“As they started firing on the police, the police also had to resort to firing in return and around 10 rounds were fired on them,” added the SSP.
Huge cache of arms and ammunition were also recovered from her possession. later the rebels were identified as members of PlFI headed by Dinesh Gope. The rebels are said to be the team of the area commander Tulsi Pahan, who also succeeded to escape.
“Six rifles, one carbine, five country made pistols and 40 rounds of cartridges along with Naxal pamphlets were also recovered from their possession,” he added.
Meanwhile, mixed response has been observed during the two day shutdown of Bihar and Jharkhand called by the CPI (Maoists). Security arrangements have been tightened at the strategic places in view of the shutdown on April 6-7.
Security has been beefed up at railway tracks, panchayat buildings and has other identified strategic places. The Maoists, who are observing ‘protest week’ against the killing of 10 of their cadres by their breakaway faction ‘Tritiya Prastuti Committee’ (TPC) on March 28.
The rebels have blown up a Panchayat building in lohardaga and have also killed five policemen in Gumla during the ongoing ‘protest week’ concluding with the two-day shutdown in Bihar and Jharkhand.