M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Oct 22: CPI Maoists launched a ‘military action’ at the construction site of the third railway line at Malhaan under Chandwa police station in the Latehar district on Friday.
“Chandwa police have found a hand-written leaflet describing this shootout as military action,” said police officer Madan Sharma. This military action of Maoists is in retaliation for their displacement from the Bulbul jungles on the border of Latehar and Lohardaga by the security forces around eight months ago.
Three people at the site were hurt in the shootout which was not targeted but indiscriminate just to create terror. One of the three hurt has bullet wounds in the chest while the other two have bullet wounds in the knee.
The three who sustained serious gun injuries are Sheo Kumar Yadav (23), Bisheshwar Yadav (35), and Vikas Yadav (21), who were working at the railway site. They were rushed to RIMS Ranchi from the community health centre in Chandwa late in the evening of Friday itself.
Chandwa CHC medical officer in charge Dr N K Pandey said Sheo has two gun injuries on the right side of his chest. He belongs to Aurangabad, Bihar. He was tired to be made stable here in the community health centre added Dr Pandey.
“One bullet exited from his body while the other was taken out by surgery at RIMS Ranchi at night,” said the officer in charge of Chandwa police station Madan Sharma.
Bisheshwar Yadav has one gun injury below his left knee. He hails from Balumath in the Latehar district. Vikas Yadav has also shot injury in the knee. He comes from Balumath in the Latehar district.
The military action was done for the extraction of the levy. Well-placed sources said the shootout was the handiwork of CPI Maoists of the squad of Ravinder Ganjhu who is the face of the terror of Koel Sankh Zone. The squad suffered a huge debacle in terms of cadres and machines in the Double Bull coded anti-Maoist operations launched by the security forces that began in February 2022 in the Bulbul jungles on the border of Latehar and Lohardaga. Security forces had neutralised one Maoist and had caught a dozen, recovering 30 weapons from them. The forces too couldn’t remain unscathed in this operation.
Sources said since then Ravinder Ganjhu and his cadres are desperate to bounce back and this shootout on Friday is a pointer that Maoists are not far off but around.
Police sources said this assault of the Maoists is a calculated move having twin aims: one to show the Maoists are down but not out and second that they are still in command to strike terror at their own place of the target.
Sources said the officer in charge of the Chandwa police station and his team showed extreme courage and presence of mind in evacuating the injured persons from the attack site as the locale and its topography were inimical to the police and the Maoists could have unleashed more terror. The site has forests and hillocks much to the advantage of the Maoists.
This correspondent contacted ADG Ops Sanjay Anand Lathkar to know more about this assault of the Maoists to which he said, “I am away from Jharkhand to attend the 91st General Assembly of the INTERPOL in Delhi.”
