Police and Para-military forces on Sunday recovered a landmine and a country-made rifle Saranda in West Singhbhum district. The explosives and rifle was found during a day-long Jharkhand bandh call given by the People’s liberation Front of India (PlFI) on Sunday.
The bandh call given by the banned rebel outfit in protest against the killing of two villagers, suspected to be PlFI supporters, in Gumla district in a police firing. The bandh is effective from midnight of Saturday in West Singhbhum, Khunti, Seraikela-Kharsawan, Ranchi, Simdega and Gumpla where the PlFI is active.
The West Singhbhum superintendent of police, NK Singh said that the landmine was recovered from a jungle between Nuagaon and Bitkilsoy under Jeraikela police station in Saranda during a long range patrolling (lRP), where as the rifle was recovered from a house in Bitkilsoy.
“We cannot reveal on the status of the operation due to security reasons but yes we are interrogating them to dig out further links,” said a district police official. He said that the forces are targeting the different areas under the Saranda forest. Police said that the security has been beefed up in the area and they were keeping strict vigil on movement of the ultras. “There has been a substantial increase in rebel activities in this area. We are not much concerned about small acts of violence because these activities can be controlled by us, but the bigger attacks are worrisome,” said a security official.
Meanwhile the SP informed that it was an old land-mine weighing over 15 kg and was planted sometime during the period when the naxalism was at its peak. The paramilitary forces jawans detonated the recovered landmine at a safe place,” said Singh. About the rifle, the superintendent of police said that it was a country-made rifle left abandoned at an abandoned house in Bitkilsoy.
The Jharkhand bandh on Sunday, however, failed to evoke its response in Singhbhum. Except for Galudih and Dhalbhumgarh in Ghatshila sub-division of East Singhbhum district and Chowka in adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district, the life was completely normal in rest of the region.In the East Singhbhum, the mobility of the security forces including CRPF personnel was paced up on the National Highway-33 stretching from Ghatshila to Chandil. “The district administration has deputed 17 magistrates across strategic locations of the district to oversee the security affairs in the wake of bandh,” informed a senior official.
“We have made elaborate arrangement to ensure that the bandh call given by the rebels make no impact. Barring few localities in Ghatshila subdivision, the call has failed to make any impact,” he said.