Maoists attack CRPF camp in Ranchi village, 1 killed

RANCHI: A group of about 100 armed cadres of CPI(Maoist) attacked a CRPF camp at Nawadih village under Bundu police station in Ranchi district on Tuesday night leaving a villager dead and a CRPF personnel injured. Two companies of 133-Delta battalion of CRPF are stationed in the village which is located in a Naxal stronghold.

Bundu SDPO Anand Joseph Tigga said the CRPF personnel were returning to their base camp at Bundu at around 10.30 pm when the Maoists launched the attack.

Tigga said the Maoists encircled the temporary CRPF camp at Nawadih and opened indiscriminate fire on the personnel. "The CRPF men opened retaliation fire. However, a jawan Shiv Shankar Yadav suffered a bullet injury in his neck," he said.

The encounter continued for nearly two-and-a-half hours in which the CRPF fired three mortar rounds, six high explosives bombs. The two sides also exchanged about 2000 rounds of small arm fire. By the time reinforcement arrived, the rebels retreated into the jungles.

The body of a villager, identified as Sukhdeo Munda, was recovered at the encounter site on Wednesday morning with bullet marks on his back and leg. It is believed that Munda was killed in the crossfire.

Tigga said the Maoists squad was led by "zonal commander" Kundan Pahan. "It seems they were on a look out to carry out attacks on NH-33 but got into an encounter with the CRPF personnel quite by chance," he said.

Sources said the Kundan Pahan-led Maoist squad were on the lookout to carry out a major strike on the security personnel following the arrest of seven hardcore rebels, including Maoist "sub-zonal commander" David by ranchi police on August 24.