2 killed as police, Naxals clash on Nepal border

The sources said that firing in the first incident started after a police team, led by Sitamarhi SP Kundan Krishnan, surrounded Piprahi village last night, where around 100 CPI (Maoist) activists had taken shelter.

The second encounter started around 5 pm today near Bairgania and involved Special Task Force (STF) and CRPF jawans. According to a police officer engaged in the operation, Maoists involved in the Madhuban market attack, in adjoining East Champaran, were retreating in different groups and trying to sneak into Nepal.

The Madhuban attack, police claim, was the first joint operation of Indian and Nepalaese Maoists. STF sources said that they had recovered a blueprint of the Madhuban attack which details strategy and contains Nepalese names.

Meanwhile, Bihar DGP Ashish Ranjan Sinha said in Patna that they had sought 10 additional CRPF companies to tackle the Naxal menace. He claimed that over 24 Maoists were killed by police after the Madhuban attack and praised the officers and jawans involved in the operation. But police have recovered only six bodies of Naxalites.

Maoist shot in Andhra

HYDERABAD: The ‘deputy commander’ of a local Maoist squad, Venkatesh alias Prakash, was killed in an exchange of fire with police in Andhra Pradesh’s Mahaboobnagar district on Sunday, officials said. The police party came across the group of Naxalites while combing the forests near Sangaipalli village, they said. —PTI