A jawan of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) of the CRPF was martyred on Monday in an encounter with CPI (Maoist) rebels in latehar district’s Budha Pahad jungles on Monday. The jawan, injured in the gunfire between security forces and extremists in latehar, succumbed to his injuries after being brought to Ranchi for treatment.
Jharkhand Police spokesperson and ADG (Operations) SN Pradhan said that Ajay Kumar, a jawan of 209 CoBRA Force, martyred in the gunfight in latehar. Kumar was a resident of Nawahpind, SBS district of Punjab.
Pradhan said that the site of the operation was on the borders of Chhattisgarh and 18 to 20 companies of the CoBRA, Jharkhand Jaguar, Jharkhand Armed Police and CRPF were involved in the raids on specific inputs and they had information on the movement of Arvindjee's contingent of the CPI (Maoist).
Sources from latehar said that the security forces had begun their operation on Sunday night itself. On Monday morning at around 11 AM shelling started from both sides and a CoBRA jawan was injured, who was later airlifted to Ranchi, sources added.
The Jawan succumbed to injuries at Medanta Hospital in Ranchi. On the other hand, locals in latehar said that the security forces have also gunned down 4-5 rebels, whose bodies could not be recovered.
The encounter continued till 4 pm in the evening. The body of the martyred jawan is likely to be sent to his village in Punjab tomorrow, said police.