Fifty-six wanted persons were taken into custody when a 300-strong police force carried out a “major raid” on a twelve square mile rebel hide-out on the Nepal border, less than half mile west of Naxalbari township this afternoon [July 20]. In a simultaneously smaller raid, the police arrested seven persons in the Burraganj pocket in the Kharibari area. Six of the arrested men were left off later on personal bond. Some quantity of bows and arrows was seized. Among the arrested men are two second rank rebel leaders, Kamal Singh and Osman Mohammad. The hide-out raided on the Nepal border comprised ten villages in the dense forest between the river Balaria on the east and the river Mechi on the west. The raid, the third big in the series, lasted nearly four hours. Rebels offered no resistance. Elements of eastern frontier rifles and border security force participated in the operation.
