Paramilitary Jawan Killed In Encounter With Maoists In Jharkhand

A CRPF jawan was killed and another injured in an encounter with CPI (Maoists) in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district on Friday, a senior police officer said.

The encounter took place in a forest in Tonto area, about 160 km from state capital Ranchi, around 11 am when a team of police and CRPF were carrying out a joint search operation against Maoists, West Singhbhum SP Ashutosh Shekhar told PTI.

The search operation is being carried out in Tonto police station area since August 8.

"Two CRPF jawans identified as Sushant Kumar Khuntia and Munnalal Yadav suffered bullet injuries during the encounter. They were airlifted to Ranchi for better treatment. However, Khuntia succumbed to injuries," he said.

The SP said the condition of another jawan is stable, according to doctors.

Chief Minister Hemant Soren visited the CRPF camp at Dhurwa Sector-2 in Ranchi and paid floral tributes to Khuntia.

During the ongoing operation, a huge cache of arms and ammunition have been seized by the police, officials said.

A total of 11 Maoist bunkers and 17 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were also recovered, a police statement said. 

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