3 JJ men killed, 2 hurt as Maoist IED explodes in W Singhbhum

Jamshedpur: Three police personnel died and two others sustained serious injuries when Improvised Explosive Device (

IED

) planted by CPI (Maoist) rebels exploded at Jharjhara forest in Lanji village under Toklo police station area in West Singhbhhum district around 8:45am on Thursday morning. The incident took place when the Jharkhand Jaguar team was patrolling the naxal-affected area about 160km from Jamshedpur. The Jharkhand Jaguar is a special police task force set up to tackle

Maoists

in the state

DIG (Kolhan range) Rajiv Ranjan said a search operation is underway at the site. West Singhbhhum SP, Ajay Linda, recently told TOI that Jharjhara is a hilly forest area bordering Chaibasa, Seraikela and Khunti districts. Senior police and CRPF officials from Ranchi have rushed to Chaibasa to take stock of the ongoing operation against the rebels.

Sources said the bodies of the three martyred cops -- constables Kiran Surin, constable Haridwar Shah and head constable Devendra Pandit -- have been shifted to Jharkhand Jaguar headquarters in Ranchi. The injured personnel -- Deep Topno and Niku Oraon -- were airlifted and admitted to a private hospital in the state capital. Reports said one jawan from the CRPF’s 97th Battalion sustained minor injuries, but this was not confirmed by any official sources.

Security forces have been conducting search operations is the area for the past fortnight after receiving intelligence about the movement of some senior top Maoist rebels, including zonal commander Maharaj Parmanik, in the Chaibasa-Khunti stretch. On February 7, one CoBRA jawan was injured in a similar explosion in Langi area. On February 20, security forces recovered 21 IEDs from Goilkera. The security forces, led by the district police, were involved in a gun battle with the rebels for four consecutive days from February 7 to February 11, in Langi following which the rebels retreated and police had recovered arms and explosives from the spot.