WEST MIDNAPORE/RANCHI: In a setback to the Maoists, eight extremists, including a top leader and a woman, were gunned down on Monday by security forces in two operations in West Bengal and Jharkhand.
Sidhu Soren, chief of the Sidhu-Kanhu Gana Militia -- the armed wing of the Naxal-backed People Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA), was among six Maoists killed during the raid by CRPF and Special Action Force on a Maoist hideout in dense forests in Golatore area in West Midnapore, which also left a commando of the specialised anti-Naxal force SAF dead.
"We have found six bodies, including of a woman cadre and Sidhu Soren, chief of the Sidhu-Kanhu Gana Militia," West Midnapore Superintendent of Police Manoj Verma told PTI.
Soren, who was running the militia after the arrest of PCPA convenor Chhatradhar Mahato, was wanted in several cases of murder and kidnap, besides for setting afire Lalgarh police station, Verma said, adding that the encounter stretched for four hours.
The Times of India
