Palamu police shot dead a cadre of People’s liberation Front of India (PlFI) at Koosdee Tola near Poornibathan under Panki Police Station about 35 kilometre away from Daltonganj in an encounter with a group of its cadre. The encounter started at 11 am on Monday which went on intermittently for about 50 minutes.
Palamu Police recovered the body of the ultra whose identity was yet to confirmed. Sources said the PlFI cadres abandoned the body and the weapons including three rifles, three pistols and uniforms.
Abandoning the body and weapons indicated that the PlFI cadres were under tremendous pressure and panic which can mean more injuries in their camp. Their desperate run for life indicated that the police team had badly outwitted them and taken them on their own turf like this which is in the south west of a notorious place Hurlong in Panki.
Sources said the encounter location was not much far from a Government upgraded school but since it was a holiday on Monday for Maha Shivratri festival it was closed. The killed ultra was in plain clothes but the other recoveries like three 315 bore rifles and other weapons suggested this small contingent of PlFI was out for levy collection in an area.
DIG Saket has confirmed the encounter and PlFI’s loss of one of its cadres. About his identity DIG said, “Our boys are trying to find it out. The body has been sent for post mortem and then would be kept for three days to enable any claimant of this to come and collect it.”
Speculations are that the killed ultra was Bindesh Yadav alias Amrit but the police did not confirm. “Amrit was leading a small contingent of PlFI but to say the killed was he is too early to say.” ASP (Operations) Kanhaiya Singh was rushed from Daltonganj for the offensive in the jungle where he was joined later by SP Palamu Patel Mayur K lal and the team got the results.
On number of rounds that police fired in the encounter Saket Singh said, “The police team is in the forest searching for the fleeing cadres of the PlFI. An exact count of firing will be available once the police team returns to base.”
Sources said the success of this encounter has come as a shot in arm for the Palamu police which on Sunday was pushed to the wall at Pandwa as errant crowd protested against killing of a leader and held two National Highways for hours.