Crime Today News
Two suspected Maoists were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Latehar district of Jharkhand on Saturday, a police officer told PTI.
One of those killed was Pappu Lohra, the chief of the Jharkhand Jan Mukti Parishad, a splinter group of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). The second person who was killed was Prabhat Ghanju, who was allegedly an associate of Lohra.
Lohra carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh, while Ghanju carried a reward of Rs 5 lakh, The Hindu reported.
A security official was also also hit by a bullet during the operation. He has been shifted to Ranchi for treatment, the newspaper added.
The gunfight took place during a joint anti-Maoist operation carried out by the Central Reserve Police Force and the Jharkhand Police in a forest area under the Latehar Police Station limits.
A search operation was launched based on information about the presence of Lohra and his associates in the forest, PTI quoted Palamu Deputy Inspector General YS Ramesh as saying.
On Friday, four suspected Maoists were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district along the Chhattisgarh border.
On Wednesday, 27 suspected Maoists – including Nambala Keshav Rao, who was the leader of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) – were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district.
With this, nearly 190 suspected Maoists have been killed in gunfights with security personnel this year. In 2024, 217 suspected Maoists were killed by security forces.
Malini Subramaniam has reported for Scroll that while many of those killed in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh in 2024 were declared by the police to be reward-carrying Maoists, several families dispute the claim. The families claim that the persons killed were civilians.
The Union government has repeatedly vowed to eradicate “Left Wing Extremism” in the country by March 31, 2026.
This article first appeared on Scroll.in
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