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RANCHI: Suspected Maoists killed four policemen in an ambush on a patrol party near Jharkhand ’s Latehar on Friday night, hours after BJP’s working president J P Nadda addressed an election rally in the town.

State BJP secretary Subodh Singh Guddu’s car, which was crossing the area at the time of the ambush, had a narrow escape. “We heard slogans and initially mistook the Maoist assailants to be workers of some political party. It was only when we saw bodies that we realised they were armed. They fired at my car and also another vehicle moving ahead of us,” he said.

Home minister Amit Shah had addressed a rally at Manika in Latehar, 30km from the ambush site, on Thursday. PM Modi is scheduled to visit neighbouring Palamu district , 80km away, on Monday to address a rally.

ASI among slain cops killed by Maoists

Additional DGP (operations) M L Meena said an assistant sub-inspector was among the slain cops. Two personnel were injured in the attack, which took place about 3km from Chandwa police station. “Additional forces have been rushed to the area to carry out a cordon-and-search operation,” Meena said.

Latehar constituency will go to the hustings in the first phase of polling in the state on November 30. The ambush took place on a day when top police officers of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh , UP and Bihar met to draw up a plan to combat Maoist violence .

