7 ultras killed in encounter in Jharkhand

Jamshedpur, Feb 14 (UNI) At least seven Maoists, including two women, were today killed in an encounter with a joint team of East Singhbhum district police and the Nagarik Suraksha Samity (NSS) at Phooljhor village under Dumaria police station near Jharkhand-Orissa border.

District Superintendent of Police Naveen Kumar Singh told UNI that the operation, one of the biggest successes of the police team and the NSS in recent times, saw the killing of hardcore naxalite Bikash, who was the mastermind in the killing of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha(JMM) MP from Jamshedpur Sunil Mahto at Baghuria village on March four last year.

Bikash, a resident of Purulia in West Bengal, was also the Area Codmmander of the CPI(Maoist) in Dumaria and Gudabandha areas.

Mr Singh, who led the police team in the joint operation with the NSS, a village force constituted at the behest of police a few years back to combat the naxalite menace, said the NSS cadres on being tipped off attacked the rebels, who assembled near the village last night.

NSS general secretary Dhanai Kisku directed his men to attack the ultras and killed two of them, including Bikash, on the spot, he said, and added the police team later joined the NSS cadres and killed another five Naxalites, including two women.

The SP said police also arrested two Naxalites and recovered eight sophisticated firearms, including one AK-47 and three rifles, from the possession of the slain ultras.

Mr Singh said police were interrogating the arrested ultras and launched combing operation in the hilly region to flush out the Naxalites from the area.

Significantly, the NSS activists also lynched seven Naxalites at Lango village in the area in 2004.

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