Jharkhand Police arrest Maoist leader from migrant worker camp in …
The Jharkhand Police on Tuesday arrested a leader of the pro-Maoist and banned People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI) from Kerala's Kozhikode district where he had been staying as a migrant worker for at least a month. The police identified the arrested leader as Ajay Oraon, 27, and said that a lookout notice had been issued in his name in Jharkhand. Oraon was staying in a camp of migrant workers at Pantheerankavu under Kozhikode city limits and was tracked after the tower location of his mobile phone was traced, local police said.
The Kerala Police was part of the operation to nab the wanted Maoist leader. The police said that Oraon, who is an accused in multiple cases in Jharkhand, was taken back to Jharkhand by a three-member police team. In recent years, there have been several instances of members of banned outfits and wanted criminals from the north and north-eastern states sneaking into Kerala and staying undetected among migrant workers.
In February 2022, an alleged Assam poacher, facing a lookout notice in connection with hunting the endangered one-horned rhino, was arrested in Malappuram. Asmat Ali, 26, a native of Biswanath district in Assam, was arrested from Nilambur in Malappuram district, where he lived with migrant workers from north-eastern states. In 2019, a Special Task Force of West Bengal Police had arrested a Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operative from Malappuram in connection with the 2014 Burdwan blast, which had resulted in the death of two suspected terrorists.
The suspect, Abdul Motin, hailed from Assam's Barpeta[1] district, where the JMB once had a sleeper module. In 2018, three suspected militants from the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) outfit were arrested from a factory in the Ernakulam rural district where they were working along with migrant workers. B Mehar, 25, a native of Kajigaon in Kokrajhar[2] district, B Pritam, 24, from Serfanguri, and B Dalanji, 35, from Chakuma in Kokrajhar, were cases registered under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Arms Act.
Advertisement In 2015, the Kerala Police had arrested Dimga aka Lidion Basumatary, organising secretary of the NDFB in Assam, from Kozhikode district. He had left Assam after an encounter with security forces and had been staying with migrant workers from his home state.
In 2012, the Kerala Police had arrested three people allegedly linked with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) from Kottayam.
Natives of Dimow in Assam, the three accused were working as labourers at a rubber factory in Kottayam.