The joint teams of State Police and CRPF’s CoBRA battalions have cordoned off the Budha Pahad area in latehar district of the State bordering Chhattisgarh. After the fierce encounter with CPI (Maoist) Central Committee member Arvind Jee’s squad on Friday the security forces are running continuous search operations and have recovered huge cache of arms, ammunitions and items used by the Maoists.
The forces, during search operations on January 14 and 15 found blood stains at many places confirming injury of the rebels during the encounter.
A bunker, said to be the hideout of Arvind Jee and a bathroom was also found during the operations.
“The hill is 900 metre high, one third of which comes in Jharkhand. Despite that they have left the whole area with booby trap, we have been successful in destroying their bunker and recovering their stuff.
Those who were there must be hiding somewhere. There are several caves and other places and IEDs are planted everywhere. We are trying to get the area clear for a long battle. We do not want any unnecessary casualty. These operations will continue till we clear the area completely,” said ADG (Operations) and State Police spokesperson RK Mallick.
“There is a permanent camp of CPI (Maoist) in the area and if we become successful in arresting senior Maoists, we will bring them to public….CM Raghubar Das is in Chhattisgarh today. He is scheduled to discuss the issue with his counterpart at Raipur.
We will also talk to Chhattisgarh Police and try to clean the whole area,” said Mallick.
The security forces have recovered 465 detonators, 95 IEDs, 65 grenades, 12 crude bombs, 20 Kg explosives, 3 Kg potassium, 17 Kg sulfur powder, booby 1 kg trap/nylon rope, 250 metre cordex, 116 ammunition, 20 pitthu, 27 black uniform, 5 martyr memorial, 5 banners, 200 kg ration, 1 generator, 100 litres of diesel, 1300 metre wire, 80 bulb, utensils for 40-50 persons, 4 wireless sets, 1 radio, 1 solar plate, 1 compass, 1 table lamp, 50 packet mosquito coils, naxal literature and medicines.
Meanwhile, CM Raghubar Das visited Chhattisgarh today and discussed cross border Naxalism with CM Raman Singh. The CMs discussed strengthening of vigilance system in the bordering areas of the States. Singh said that Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand share long borders. Therefore, coordination of security forces of both the States would ensure a strong vigilance and monitoring system.
Das also stressed on better coordination of forces and deployment of security personnel in sensitive areas to tame Naxalism in both the states.
He also called for quick exchange of information regarding Maoists to curb infiltration of the rebels in the States from either side.