Maoists kill 6 PLFI cadres in Jharkhand

Police are yet to identify the slain men and suspect that one of them could be Sanki Oraon,who uses the alias Bullet. He is a top-level leader; we cannot confirm anything till family members identify the bodies, a police officer said.

This is the second major encounter between rival extremist groups in Jharkhand this year. The other happened on March 27-28 at Lakramanda hamlet in Chatra district. The Tritiya Sammelan Prastuti Committee had killed 10 senior leaders of the CPI-Maoist then.

The police are finding it difficult to come up with a timeline for the case,as the encounter took place in an uninhabited area. The attack took place around midnight,between Gurudih and Namsilih villages, said DGP Rajeev Kumar. We have recovered 30 empty shells from the spot. Prima facie,it looks like the PLFI men were taken by surprise and did not get time to fire back. One of the dead men is wearing a uniform,the others are in jeans and shirts, a police officer said.