Jamshedpur, Nov. 6: The Bandwan police of Purulia district in West Bengal have arrested five People’s War (PW) guerrillas from Katagora forest, bordering Asanpani area of Ghatshila subdivision.

The rebels have been identified as Pawan, Sudev, Jaidev, Lalu and Basudeb. The police are interrogating them and trying to garner information about the modus operandi of the People’s War in the two states.

A section of the police suspect the involvement of the arrested members in the attack on a police party that killed the officer-in-charge of Bandwan police station, Neelmuni Das.

The Bandwan police, along with paramilitary forces, raided the forest areas of Katagora after being tipped off that a group of armed squad of the Naxalites had taken shelter there.

“The rebels were having their meals when the police raided their hideouts. Several members of the group managed to escape, the five were apprehended by the police,” police sources in the Ghatshila subdivision said. However, Bandwan police officials are tightlipped about the arrests.

Sources said preliminary investigations by the police revealed that the five rebels used to frequent extremist-affected Ghurabandha and Dumuria areas of Ghatshila, apart from parts of West Bengal. “We are trying to ascertain whether these five extremists were part of the PW that made an abortive attempt to blow up the Ghurabandha police station in our subdivision,” police sources said.

According to Ghatshila police officials, they are in touch with their counterparts in West Bengal and Orissa to flush out the extremists. “We had recently conducted search operations in the bordering areas of Ghatshila and Mayurbhanj following information about the movements of People’s War activities in the belt,” sources said.

The residents of the area, who go to the forest to collect wood, had informed the police that about 20 armed rebels had crossed over to the forest area in Mayurbhanj.

“We apprehend that these rebels have fled from Dumaria following plans of the villagers and members of Nagarik Suraksha Samiti (NSS) to undertake a joint operation in the forest area tomorrow to flush out the extremists,” police said.

More than 5,000 villagers and NSS members, armed with traditional weapons, would tomorrow comb the forest areas. Sources said the decision follows reported moves by the rebels to make inroads into the region after the Longo incident where 13 of their colleagues were lynched by the villagers in August.