Rs 65.52 lakh cash arms explosive materials seized from Maoist dumps in Bijapur district

Bijapur, May 13 (PTI) Security forces have recovered more than Rs 65 lakh in cash along with a huge cache of arms, ammunition and explosive materials from Maoist dumps concealed in forests of Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district over the last two weeks, police said on Wednesday.
After Chhattisgarh was declared free of armed insurgents on March 31 by the state government, security forces intensified search operations across the Bastar region, comprising seven districts, including Bijapur, to trace cash, weapons and explosives hidden by Maoists in the past, officials said.
Over the last 15 days, personnel from the district police, District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force (STF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and its elite CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) unit carried out intensive search and area domination operations in remote and highly sensitive areas of Bijapur, Superintendent of Police Jitendra Kumar Yadav told PTI.
With active support from villagers and a strong intelligence network, security forces traced several Maoist dumps hidden in forest areas containing cash, arms, ammunition and explosive materials, he informed.

Security personnel recovered Rs 65.52 lakh in cash from three dumps, along with 32 weapons, ammunition, explosive materials and items of daily use, Yadav stated.
The seized weapons included one light machine gun (LMG), four self-loading rifles (SLRs), one carbine rifle, five .303 rifles, one .315 rifle, five single-shot firearms, four 12-bore guns, seven barrel grenade launchers (BGLs), one 8 mm pistol, one vintage bolt-action firearm and two bolt-action firearms, he said.
Thirty three live rounds of AK-47 rifles, 219 live rounds of SLRs, one round of INSAS rifle , 181 live rounds for .303 rifles, 118 live rounds for .315 rifles and 84 BGL shells were among recovered ammunition. Explosives, equipment, tools, machine components and materials of daily use were also seized during the operations, Yadav said.
With the latest recoveries, a total of 461 weapons have been seized in Bijapur district over the last one-and-a-half years, he added.
Nearly 40 kg of ammonium nitrate recovered from a Maoist dump in the forests of Kavargutta under the Pamed area, and another 100 kg of ammonium nitrate and urea retrieved from the Indravati National Park area in recent days, were destroyed in accordance with safety protocols, the SP said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)