Maoists looted 10 rifles, ammunition after ambush in Jharkhand

The Maoists who had ambushed the convoy of MP and former Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari yesterday, looted firearms and ammunition from the dead and injured policemen, the police said in Latehar today.

They took away two SLR and eight Insas rifles, 900 rounds of bullets and a wireless set after triggering an IED to blow up Namdhari's escort car carrying police personnel.

While Namdhari escaped unhurt as his car was ahead of the escort car, ten police personnel and an eight-year-old boy were killed in the explosion at Ladu More of the district.

All the ten bodies of the police personnel were being airlifted to Latehar town, the police said.

Meanwhile, former deputy chief minister and Congress leader Stephen Marandi condemned the attack on Namdhari and demanded that the Arjun Munda government take political parties into confidence to go into the reasons of 'rise' in Maoist extremism.

"The state government should take all the political parties to find a permanent solution to the Maoist problem which had only increased in the last 11 years after the state's creation. Even Santhal Pargana, which was untouched by the extremists till a few years ago, now has Maoist presence," Marandi said.