6 vehicles torched in Khunti, IED found in Saranda forest

RANCHI: Suspected People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI) rebels torched six vehicles, including road rollers and bulldozers, in Maoist-hit Khunti district, 49km from here, creating a panic among the locals during the daylong daylong bandh on Sunday.
The banned outfit, a breakaway faction of CPI(Maoist), had called a statewide bandh on Sunday to oppose police atrocities on innocent villagers.Recently, police killed two villagers and injured four when they mistook them for Maoists in Gumla.
Three bulldozers, two road-rollers and a car parked at theconstruction site in Siladong were set on fire by the rebels.
“A group of around 20 arms-toting men hurled abuses at us, and threatened to kill us if we don’t lock ourselves in a room right away. After half an hour we came out of the room only to find the blazing vehicles,” said a police officer quoting a worker at the site.
A message from Jharkhand police spokesperson, Anurag Gupta said PLFI rebels were responsible for the act. “We have detained six persons for interrogation,” said Khunti SP Anish Gupta.
Based on the statements of the workers, an FIR was lodged in the case. “We are conducting a combing operation in the area to nab the accused,” said Gupta. “The project contractor said he never received extortion calls from the rebels,” said a police officer.
Meanwhile, a 40 kilogram can bomb was recovered during an anti-Maoist operation in Saranda forests on Sunday. The bomb was allegedly planted by Maoists to target security forces who frequent the area for combing operations. West Singhbhum superintendent of police N K Singh said experts have successfully diffused the bomb. “The explosive had the potential to cause huge damage to the security forces,” said Singh. Director general of police Rajiv Kumar said an alert has been sounded across the state and all SPs have been asked to keep a tab on the movement of rebels. “No untoward incident was reported on Sunday, barring the one in Khunti,” Kumar said.