Jamshedpur: Naxals received a blow on Tuesday when a hardcore Maoist, a close aide of Kishenji and allegedly
involved in the blowing up of a train track, was arrested in
Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district, barely a fortnight after
another top leader was nabbed.
Marshal Topno, who is the second prized catch after the
arrest of Venkateswar Reddy alias Dipak on March 2, was
nabbed when police was carrying out a combing operation in
Maoist-hit Posaita area, Superintendent of Police Akhilesh
Kumar Jha said.
Topno is alleged to be among those involved in blowing up
of rail tracks, resulting in derailment of several coaches of
the 322-up Tata-Bilaspur passenger on November 19 that left
two people dead.
Giving details of Topno's arrest, the official said three
others had managed to escape from the police cordon but
firearms, five can-bombs and a motorcycle were seized from the
Maoist leader.
Asked whether the ongoing combing operation was a part
of 'Operation Green Hunt', Jha said it was a regular process
to flush out the left-wing extremists.
West Bengal police had on March 2 arrested Dipak, the
suspected mastermind of the attack that killed 24 Eastern
Frontier Rifles personnel in Silda in West Midnapore district.
Meanwhile, Maoists have called a 48-hour
bandh from March 22 in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal,
Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and three districts of
Maharashtra to protest the ongoing operations by security
forces against their them.
"The bandh call on March 22 and March 23 is to protest
the operations targeted against the movement of the common
people led by Maoists," top Maoist leader Kishenji alias
Koteswar Rao said from an undisclosed location.
The bandh has also been called in Bhandara, Chandrapur
and Gadchiroli districts of Maharashtra, he said.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, March 16, 2010, 23:56