Two jawans of the Jharkhand Jaguar Force of the state police lost their lives in an encounter with Maoists in the West Singhbhum district. According to a senior police official, the incident took place in a forest between Tumbahaka and Sarjomburu villages in the Tonto area late on Monday night. West Singhbhum Superintendent of Police Ashutosh Shekhar while talking to PTI said, "The two jawans, identified as Amit Tiwari and Gautam Kumar, were killed in a Maoist ambush."
A joint team of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Cobra, Jharkhand Jaguar and district armed police launched a massive search operation based on a tip-off about the presence of Maoists in the area. The Maoists opened fire on the personnel after they spotted one jawan which resulted in a gunfight during which two jawans died.
The unfortunate incident took place just a few days after a CRPF jawan lost his life and another got injured in an encounter with Maoists in the same area.
Nine villagers also lost their lives and around two dozen got injured in IED blasts in Tonto and Goilkera police station areas.
Earlier last month, a fierce gunbattle between security personnel and Naxalites in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district resulted in casualties of at least four to six ultras. According to PTI, the Naxalites carried all the bodies with them into the forest as they were not found at the encounter site.
A police official said the said encounter broke out in the forest of Chhotekedwal village, which is situated in a Maoist stronghold when most of the security personnel were on an anti-Naxalite operation. The encounter site was located on the border of Chintagufa and Kistaram police station limits.
The official said personnel from the state police's District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the elite Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were involved in the operation.