Anti-rebel operation spreads to two more districts

RANCHI: Police operation against People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI), a splinter group of the CPI(Maoist), in Khunti has now been exended to neighbouring Gumla and Simdega districts.
PLFI rebels are active in these districts and intimidate traders and government officials for levy. After Jamui incident, Jharkhand police has mounted an offensive against PLFI and want to eliminate flush them out of the three districts.
Khunti police will seek the remand of the area commander arrested on Saturday. "We have interrogated him after arrest. He seems to be in the know of the state of affairs in PLFI and its plans. We will seek him remand to interrogate him more and extract more information," said Khunti SP Anish Gupta.
Area commander of PLFI, Shankar Gope, was arrested with arms on Saturday morning from Murhu area in the district.
A police officer said Shankar Gope was one of the persons who had gone to different schools in Khunti and threatened teachers to discontinue classes.
Operations were launched in Khunti on Thursday to re-open the schools which, government claimed, have not opened. DIG Ranchi range Praveen Kumar said operations have spread into Gumla and Simdega.
"The operations are going on in full swing in all three districts. The top leaders in all these districts have been identified and the police have been asked to arrest them as soon as possible," said Kumar.
Chief secretary Sajal Chakraborty said, "This is an all out war against the Naxalites and forces would not stop unless they clear the area of the rebels. The PLFI is a criminal organization and has created a sense of terror in all these districts."
However, in none of these districts any major arrest or recovery was made on Sunday. "We have got some leads and are working on them," said Gupta.