Jharkhand Police arrests PLFI zonal commander in Gumla

Jharkhand Police has arrested a Maoist named Sukra Orao from Ghaghra area of Gumla district.

Gumla Superintendent of Police (SP) Rakesh Bansal informed that the arrested ultra is a member of the People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI).

"He calls himself the zonal commander of the PLFI. A 315 rifle, a 9 mm pistol, two magazines, nine bullets and three mobile phones have been recovered. There is also an Apache motorcycle. We suspect that it might have been robbed at Ranchi," he said, while interacting with the media here yesterday.

The Maoist insurgents are estimated to number around 7000 hardcore fighters in nearly a third of India's 630 districts. While they have made few inroads into cities, they have spread into rural pockets in 20 of 28 states.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described Naxalism as the gravest internal security challenge to the nation.