Kolkata: A total of 13 naxalites were arrested for the October 11 landmine blast, which left a police officer dead and four policemen injured at Katjhora in Purulia district, in joint combing operations by the West Bengal and Jharkhand police, a top police official said on October 15.

IG (Western Range) Goutam Chakraborty said that Purulia's adjoining districts Bankura and Midnapore besides Ghatsila in Jharkhand were being combed for the naxalites who killed officer-in-charge of Bandwan police station Nilmadhab Das by blowing up his jeep.

A report from Jamshedpur added that the Jharkhand police detained eight Bengali-speaking youths after picking them up from a school at Punsa village in East Singhbhum district in connection with the Purulia blast.

DSP, (Ghatsila range), S K Sinha, said that the East Singhbhum district police, along with the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force), launched a hunt for the youths after a tip-off by villagers.

The youths denied complicity with the blast and said that they had come for trekking, he said.

Their claims were being verified from concerned authorities in West Bengal, Sinha added.

PTI