Ranchi, March 9: The Jharkhand government today said it was ready to cooperate with West Bengal in its efforts to flush out extremists creating trouble in the border areas of the two states.

Nine districts of Jharkhand share their borders with West Bengal.

Sources in the Jharkhand home department said they were chalking out a strategy on how to trap the Naxalites who operate in the forests of West Bengal and cross over to Jharkhand whenever there is an operation.

Officials in the West Bengal home department had yesterday said the state expected Jharkhand to emulate Bhutan, which had helped to drive out the militants belonging to the United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa), National Democratic Front of Boroland and the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation which had set up camps in the Himalayan kingdom.

The West Bengal government says People’s War guerrillas cross over to Jharkhand after every major operation in the state.

West Bengal’s overtures may find favour with the Jharkhand government, which too is paying heavily due to stepped-up Naxalite activities. Sources in the home department said they would readily allow the task force in West Bengal to lay its hands on the extremists in Jharkhand whom they suspect of crossing over to create trouble there.

Minister in charge of the home department Chandra Mohan Prasad said: “We are already suffering and it is our aim to end extremism. We have been trying to end this problem since the inception of Jharkhand.”