Members of the banned outfits — Triptiya Prastuti Committee (TPC) and CPI (Maoists) — clashed in the wee hours of Saturday near Kauriya village under Bishrampur police station area in Palamau district. The fierce gun battle left 16 members of the TPC dead. “Yes there have been clash between two outfits and we are trying to find out the exact number of casualty,” said DSP Ajay Kumar.
The clash is an attempt by the two outfits to establish itself in the region by wiping out the other. The dead bodies have not been recovered by police. Details about any casualty of Maoist members are yet to be ascertained.
“We are getting information that body of the dead extremists were taken away by their friends,” said IG (Provision) and Spokesperson of Jharkhand police, Anurag Gupta. The battle was reported around 2.30 am to the police which rushed to the spot inside the forest to intervene and catch the members of the two outfits. However, members of the both outfits had disappeared in the dense forest. According to unconfirmed reports, members of the CPI (M) ran away with the arms of dead members of TPC.
“They left the spot as soon as police reached there,” added Gupta. The TPC was formed in 2002 from Communist Party of India-Maoist CPI (M) and is active in the latehar, Chatra and Palamau districts of Jharkhand. The splinter group has been on war path with parent organisation, CPI (M). Members of both sides have been killed in separate incidents on different occasions. The present incident is also seen as the one among many others in the region and also revenge by CPI (M) for Chatra incident.
“This could be a revenge of the Chatra incident. They have been hunting for each other in the past as well,” maintained Gupta. The last battle between the warring groups had taken place in March 2013 which had resulted in the death of 10 Maoist cadres, including four leaders of the Maoists’ Madhya Zone.