Bokaro police along with the 26th battalion of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) confronted the CPI (Maoist) on Sunday at Rajderwa forest area in Jhumra under Chatrochati police station of Bokaro district. The CRPF and the local police exchanged 200 to 230 rounds of the fire with CPI (Maoist) rebels near the Chatrochati area while conducting anti-naxal raids. However, there was no casualty on either side.
Following a tip-off about the presence of insurgents in the Jhumra region, the CRPF along with the Bokaro police personnel launched a combing operation after getting input from vigilance that at least 30 rebels, including women Naxal contingents of Santosh Mahto’s dasta, were camping at Chatrochati near Rajdeewa village area.
On the directive of Bokaro superintendent of police P.Murugan, a task force was constituted for the purpose.
As the police team approached the Chatrochati hills, the Naxals camping atop it happened to stop the forces. Seeing the police forces the Maoist opened fire. In retaliation when the CRPF and local police opened fire, the Naxals taking advantage of forested and hilly terrain escaped. The encounter lasted for a couple of hours and over a dozen rounds of bullets were fired from each side.
This too did not cause any casualty on the side of the police, Bokaro SP,P.Murugan. Jhumra is a Naxal-hit area which falls exactly between Jhumra and Chainpur. An MHA report released in February 2019 said that 19 of 24 districts in Jharkhand were LWE-affected and 13 of them were extremely sensitive. Perhaps the presence of banned rebel outfits here was one of the major reasons for the ECI to stretch the voting process to almost a month during the Assembly polls.
According to figures with the State police, there are at least 17 splinter groups active in Jharkhand apart from the CPI (Maoist). A majority of rebels running the splinter outfits are nothing more than hired guns and thugs who have unleashed a reign of terror on innocent villagers, say police.
Many of these groups are involved in trafficking children, abducting businessmen for ransom, growing and smuggling opium and killing for sport, police say.