Fierce gun-battle took place between the troops of JPC and TSPC in the Kandaber forest area of Keredari block of Hazaribagh district nn Friday. According to the villagers of nearby areas the battle lasted for about 4 hours and the entire forest area was echoing with the sound of gun fire.
After getting information police teams of Barkagaon and Keredari rushed towards the spot and searched the entire area. Inspector Akhilesh Singh of Barkagaon and Mukesh Kumar the OIC of Keredari police station said that only fired cartridges were found at the spot. The villagers claim that there were spots of blood at various places but police has denied this claim.
On the other hand the zonal commander of JPC Badal Ji informed about this incident to some local newsmen through mobile and said that at about 10 am this morning some of us has already finished our lunch and our some members had just started taking it. In the mean time the group of TSPC opened fire on us. We retaliated immediately. In the exchange of fire we have shot dead atleast two TSPC men and about half a dozen have got severe injuries.
Badal informed that he and his sub-zonal commander Purushottam led the battle from their side and it is not yet clear who was leading the team of TSPC. He also claimed that after the escape of TSPC group he himself informed the police about the battle. He also claimed that during this battle they made 600 rounds of firing and the opponents also made about 400 rounds of firing.
The battle between JPC and TSPC in this area is not a new thing. Clashes between both banned left outfits has become a routine matter in this area and the news of death of caders of one side or other comes frequently to the headquarter from that area. The main cause of their battle is the levy amount which has increased a lot after the opening of Amarpali and Ashoka coal blocks and industrialization work going on in that area as NTPC power plant erection work is going on rapidly in adjoining Tandwa block.