A 25-year-old tribal woman in Gumla killed a People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI) area commander in a bid to protect her family from a group of insurgents, police said on Thursday. She used a sickle –a tool used by farmers at farmlands– to stab one of the six PLFI rebels who attacked her family, they added.
"The insurgent, who was stabbed, sustained severe injuries. We found his body at a nearby forest during search operations," said Gumla Superintendent of Police Hrudeep P Janardhanan. "The deceased PLFI area commander has been identified as Basant Gope," he added.
Stories of this tribal woman's bravery have been doing the rounds across the district since the incident occurred on Wednesday. Vinita Oraon lost her father-in-law to Left Wing Extremism, police said. “PLFI rebels killed her (Vinita's) father-in-law after he refused to pay levy to the LWE outfit. They were also threatening her husband and brother-in-law of dire consequences if they give statements against PLFI in the court," Janardhanan said.
As many as six armed PLFI leaders barged into Vinita's house on Wednesday at Brinda village, around seven kilometers from the district headquarters.
They reportedly started manhandling members of her family, and Vinita attacked the insurgents with a sickle in an act of self defence. The rebels fled after one of them –the deceased area commander– sustained injuries, police said.
PLFI is one of the 17 splinter groups active in Jharkhand, where 18 of 24 districts are left wing extremism-affected. The splinter group split from the main CPI (Maoist) organization and formed their own gang with different ideologies and purposes. The police, however, claim that a majority of the splinter outfits are hired guns and thugs who have unleashed a reign of terror on innocent villagers.
PLFI chief Dinesh Gope had quit the Indian Army in 2003 and formed the Jharkhand Liberation Tigers (JLT) in the same year. It was later renamed PLFI. The organization has its roots in Khunti and has been responsible for several incidents of attacks on the security forces and private firms in the past.