A CRPF Deputy Commandant Heera Kumar Jha lost his life during a Naxal encounter on Friday near lakhari village under Khaira Police Station in Jamui district (Bihar) at the borders of Jharkhand and Bihar. The incident took place early in the morning on Friday after a joint squad of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) from both the states were out on a search operation in the area.
Jha was stationed at the headquarters of the 7th battalion in Giridih of Jharkhand who had left for the operation on Thursday night along with other companies of the battalion. Hailing from Dhanbad Jha’s family is currently living in Delhi where he was posted before being transferred to Jharkhand in 2012.
“Jha was posted at Giridih and was out on an anti-Naxal operation on the other side of the border who, got killed after receiving bullet on his head,” said DGP Rajiv Kumar. The body after the post-mortem is likely to reach Jha’s home town Dhanbad in the evening, he added. According to the police, heavy exchange of fire took place between the two sides after the rebels ambushed the joint squad from the other side while the security forces were heading towards a group of rebels after getting a tip off of their movement in the area.
The joint team was on a search operation after getting a tip off regarding the movement of the rebels in the area and were coming down after searching the hillocks entering a village and starting searching for the rebels. All of a sudden, the rebels started firing from inside a house hitting the bullet
directly under the left eye of Jha, who succumbed to injuries on the spot. The rebels however,
succeeded in escaping to the nearby jungles.
Sources in the police department added that some Maoists managed to escape from the village under the cover fire provided from their aides. Jharkhand police later sent reinforcements to assist the forces.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Sajal Chakraverty along with DGP Rajiv Kumar, Home Secretary NN Pandey along with other officials visited Khunti on Thursday hold a meeting to review the ongoing operations launched against People’s liberation Front of India (PlFI) rebels in the district. PlFI have become quite active in the area in the last few years. According to the police sources Chakraverty stressed on intensifying the anti-rebel operations in the district so that they are finished once for all.
Alerted over the PlFI dictat following which over 400 hundred schools in the district remained closed for over a week, Chakraverty has asked the district administration to deal with them so that they do not dare such things in future. Chakraverty branding the PlFI cadres as mere criminals without having any agenda has earlier directed the Khunti SP to finish them after giving them a final warning to surrender.