Bhubaneswar/Ranchi, March 9 (IANS) Three Maoist guerrillas were arrested from Orissa and Jharkhand Tuesday, police said.

Two rebels were held in Orissa's Sundergarh district while one Maoist commander was arrested from Jharkhand's Bokaro district.

Salim Barla and Jablin Munda were arrested during a joint combing operation of Orissa police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in the forested Bada Roxy area of Sundergarh, over 500 km from state capital Bhubaneswar.

'They were arrested during combing operation today (Tuesday),' Sub-Divisional Police Officer of Banai Sudarshan Sethy said.

He said two landmines were recovered from them.

According to police, the two rebels killed Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) leader Thomas Munda.

Pandu Manjhi, sub-zonal area commander of outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), was arrested from Jharkhand's forested area of Bokaro, around 130 km from state capital Ranchi.

'On a tip-off, we arrested Pandu Manjhi who was wanted in many cases. We have seized one 9 mm pistol, 17 live cartridges and Rs.10,000 in cash from the arrested rebel,' Bokaro Superintendent of Police Saket Kumar Singh told IANS.

Maoist rebels are active in 20 of the 24 districts of Jharkhand. Nearly 1,600 people, including 365 security personnel, have been killed in Maoist-related violence in the state in the last nine years.