A day after Chief Minister Raghubar Das reiterated that Left Wing Extremism (LWE) menace in State will be tackled with iron hands, red terror returned to haunt the State on Friday early morning. 

Two jawans of the Jharkhand Jaguar (Special task Force of the State police), designated to counter the extremist insurgents in the State, lost their lives in an encounter with members of the banned armed groups, the Communist Party of India (Maoists), near Dassam falls between Bundu and Namkum area of Ranchi district.

The deceased jawans were identified as Khanjan Kumar Mahto (23), constable and resident of Chainpur village, under Sonahatu police station in Ranchi district and Akhilesh Kumar Ram (32), constable and resident of village Kundri under Lesliganj police station in Palamu district.

According to Additional Director General of Police, Murari Lal Meena, the ambush was reported after jawans launched a counter-insurgency operation, on being tipped about the presence of CPI (Maoist) cadres between Bundu and Namkum near the Dassam falls.

Meena said, “The security forces based on a tip off that the members of the banned CPI (Maoist) group had gathered near Dassam falls, had rushed to the area around 4 am.The LWE members who were hiding in the bushes opened fire on the security forces.

Two jawans suffered bullet injuries, while one jawan was declared brought dead at the hospital, the other succumbed to injuries during treatment.”

Police sources said that after the Maoist firing the security forces retaliated, but there was no report of casualties from extremists’ side.

Meanwhile, the security forces have launched a search operation after the incident. Meanwhile, as per sources in State home department till September this year, around 27 LWE activists and 10 security forces have lost their lives.

 The State Government to check LWE menace in State are working on two ways strategy first acting strictly against extremist groups and second convincing them to surrender before the police with State government’s lucrative surrender policy.

Last month, influenced with state government surrender policy dreaded CPI (Maoist) Bhushan Yadav alias Chandra Bhushan Yadav surrendered before police in Gumla.