2 rebels arrested, Ak-47 seized

RANCHI: Khunti police, at a press conference on Sunday, said it had arrested two People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI) rebels and seized an AK-47 and five bullets during a raid conducted at a suspected PLFI hideout from Rania, in the southern part of Khunti district, on Saturday afternoon.
Khunti SP Anish Gupta said, "Our priority was to gather details about the background of the arrested rebels and verify them."
Nine SIM cards and a mobile phone, besides military uniform, were also seized from the suspected hideout."We received intelligence reports that PLFI zonal commander Jidan Gudiya has called a meeting at a location near Khudbir village. A team was formed to raid the suspected location," Gupta said.
ASP (operations) P R Mishra, who supervised the raid, said the rebels spotted the police team and escaped.
"The team asked them to surrender, but the rebels escaped. Our men managed to arrest two rebels," said Mishra. The rebels had a AK-47 but did not fire at the police team.
"They were surrounded by an armed team. It would have been fatal for them to open fire at the police," Mishra said.
The arrested PLFI rebels have been identified by police as Amit Lugnu alias Birsa and Julias Lugnu alias Julu. "They are being interrogated," said Gupta.