Eight Maoists including four women arrested in Muzaffarpur

In a major anti-Maoist operation, the police on Tuesday arrested eight alleged Maoists including four women from a village in Muzaffarpur district and recovered six detonators, a pistol, some ammunition and naxal literature from them.

Muzaffarpur Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ranjit Kumar Mishra said the arrests were made from Turki village in the district and the entire operation was conducted on the basis of intelligence inputs.

"The Maoists had assembled in a government high school at Turki and were making plans to attack persons who had not paid levy demanded by their organisation. We got a tip-off about it and laid a trap to net them. The operation was concluded successfully," Mishra said.

The SSP said the arrested persons have been identified as Bharti Devi, Puja Devi, Kalawati Devi, Aaarti Devi, Rampravesh Rai, Lalan Rai, Ganesh Rai and Dinesh Rai. They all are residents of different places in Muzaffarpur. The police is interrogating the arrested persons to gain additional information about their activities.

Turki area has emerged as a hotbed of Maoist activity in Muzaffarpur. Recently, Maoists had attacked a businessman and exploded bombs at his residence after he refused to pay levy imposed on him.