The arrested rebels, Bimala Sardar (left) and Sulekha Mahato. Picture by Naresh Jana

Belpahari, Feb. 8: The earth is caked with dried blood at places and the trees bear bullet marks at the site of an encounter between Maoist guerrillas and security forces.

About 150 policemen and jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force armed with automatic rifles fanned out this morning in the dense forest of Ukhuldoba in West Midnapore’s Belpahari, 215 km from Calcutta, to conduct a major combing operation.

Two CPI (Maoist) rebels ? Sulekha Mahato, 17, and Bimala Sardar, 21 ? were arrested during the encounter yesterday. They were brought to Belpahari police station late last night and interrogated.

Inspector-general of police (Western Range) Banibrata Basu said it was a major achievement. “This is for the first time the police arrested two active guerrillas during an encounter. We proved to the local residents that the police could also strike back.”

A police official, who did not want to be named, said there was pressure on them to come up with concrete results ever since CPM district secretariat member Rabindranath Kar was murdered in Purulia’s Bandwan on December 31, 2005.

The police did not confirm any deaths but bloodstains indicated that some guerrillas might have died or sustained bullet injuries. The other rebels might have dragged them into the forest.

District superintendent of police Ajay Nanda said there were over a dozen guerrillas, many of them from Jharkhand, who were engaged in a shootout with the police from 6 pm to about 9 pm yesterday.

“We suspect the Maoists were led by Madan Mahato, who hails from Shalboni in West Midnapore. He is wanted in a number of cases in Jharkhand,” the SP said.

The police recovered arms, ammunition, clothes, dry-food packets, utensils and bedding left behind by guerrillas.

“We received a tip-off yesterday that armed guerrillas had been seen in the jungles of Ukhuldoba. A police team led by subdivisional police officer Ajay Thakur left for the area. CRPF jawans followed,” an official said.

“Around 4.30 pm, two women in khaki trousers and shirts appeared from the forest and approached the pond to take a bath. Our men in mufti, keeping a watch there, directed the forces to follow them. The two led the police to their gang,” a police official said in Ukhuldoba.

When the security forces zeroed in, the Maoists opened fire. “At least 70 to 80 rounds were fired from both sides. However, no policeman was injured,” a police officer said.

Around 8 pm, when the guerrillas began to retreat, two women rebels came out of the forest with their hands raised in surrender.