RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Jan.11: In an incident of midnight attack on stone mines, a section of youths covering their face with masks set up two vehicles engaged in the transportation of stone on fire near an ITBP camp in Sukurhuttu under Kanke police station area.
It is suspected that youths were associated with the extremist organisation TPC.
Senior superintendent (SP) of police Kishore Kaushal confirmed the incident saying a probe has been started to ascertain whether youths were local criminals or extremists.
“We do not rule out the possibility of involvement of extremists though the forest is far away from the place of occurrence. It is not easy for extremists to reach there after leaving the forest at night. We have started working to ensure whether those involved in the incident were extremists or local criminals to decide the further line of action,” SP Kaushal said.
Asked whether anything recovered from the spot suggested the involvement of TPC, SP Kaushal said, “A letter written in poor Hindi mentioning the name of TPC was recovered but the same letter is in the handwriting of a guard who became a victim of the attack. Attackers forced the guard to write the letter.”
A local resident said that the number of youths was seven.
“They snatched a guard’s mobile phone and then set two Hiwa on fire. Police reached the spot in the morning,” the resident said.
“There was minor damage in the vehicle due to fire. The primary investigation suggested that attackers had come after they failed to extort money. In the area where the incident took place, extremists’ presence was not felt earlier,” the police official said.
