Overview

• Pre-dawn Operation Sankalp sweep in Bokaro’s Birhordera forest involved CRPF, CoBRA and Jharkhand Police and led to a fierce firefight on July 17.
• Commando Praneshwar Koch of the 209 CoBRA battalion was mortally wounded in the clash and later succumbed at a Ranchi hospital.
• Security forces also killed Kunwar Manjhi, a CPI (Maoist) sub-zonal commander with a ₹5 lakh bounty.
• Koch’s body was flown to Guwahati and cremated with state honours in his native village of Rabhapara, Kokrajhar.
• The Assam government pledged ₹50 lakh in compensation and a government post for a family member to support the martyr’s relatives.