Lagatar24 Desk
Ranchi/Bokaro: In a significant breakthrough against Left Wing Extremism, eight Naxals, including top commanders with massive bounties, were gunned down by a joint team of CRPF and Jharkhand Police on Monday morning in Lugu Pahadi under Jageshwar Vihar police station area in Bokaro district.
Among those killed are Vivek, who carried a reward of ₹1 crore on his head, Saheb Ram Manjhi, and Arvind Yadav. The encounter began around 5:30 am, and two sophisticated weapons — an INSAS rifle and a Self-Loading Rifle (SLR) — were recovered from the site.
Naxals were plotting a major attack:
According to senior police officials, intelligence inputs indicated that a Maoist squad had assembled in the Lugu Pahadi region with plans to execute a major attack. In response, a special team comprising personnel from the CRPF and Jharkhand Police was formed.
The team launched an intensive search operation across Luguburu and Jhumra Hills, leading to a fierce gun battle. Eight Maoists were neutralised in the encounter, two of whom had multiple cases lodged against them in various police stations.
Second major success in three months:
This is the second such major success in the region this year. On January 22, security forces had engaged in a fierce firefight with CPI-Maoist cadres in Bokaro, resulting in the killing of two ultras, including Manoj Baskey and Shanti Devi, wife of a ₹15 lakh bounty Naxal commander.
The earlier operation was based on inputs from the arrest of the ₹15 lakh reward Naxal on January 20 in Chandrapura. The recent crackdown is seen as a follow-up to that actionable intelligence.
