Barely a few days ahead of polls, security forces seized three IEDs weighing over 50 kg each along with a huge cache of explosives, including 1745 detonators and more than 150 pressure cookers early in the morning on Monday from Kumandih jungles of latehar in perhaps one of the biggest recoveries in the recent past.
Understandably, the explosives were hidden by the Naxals in order to obstruct the polling process during the Assembly elections by targeting security forces in latehar where polls are scheduled to be held during first phase of Elections in the state on November 25.“This is definitely one of the biggest recoveries in the recent past by the state police, which has succeeded in checking the ulterior motive of hindering the pollprocess in the state,” said IG (Provisions) and state police Spokesperson Anurag Gupta.According to latehar SP Michael S Raj, a joint operation of CoBRA battalion of CRPF and Jharkhand ‘Jaguars’ was carried out in the Kumandih jungles on the basis of an input that a huge cache of explosives have been concealed in the jungles by the Maoists.
“A joint team of security forces raided the spot secretly and found out the explosives along with the materials used for making can bombs,” Raj added.These explosives were kept with an intention to carry out destructive objectives by the Naxals in latehar, confirmed the SP.
list of explosives seized during the combing operation includes 1,745 detonators, three gas cylinder based Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) of 50 kg each, over 150 pieces of steel lunch boxes, 123 steel containers, 5kg cane bomb, 400kg of urea mixed with petrol, 10kg of gun powder, Nitro- Sulphide weighing around 1 kg, two large cutter machines, two drill machines, 400 syringes, tool boxes, electronic gadgets and 200 pressure cookers which is used by the Maoists to prepare IEDs.
The Union home ministry has already alerted Jharkhand police about possible Maoists attacks on prominent leaders during the polls.Remarkably, Maoists had killed as many as eight polling personnel including policemen in an ambush inDumka during the recently held lok Sabha Elections in the state.In the first phase, polling will be held at 13 assembly seats spreading over latehar, Gumla, lohardaga, Palamu and Chatra districts of the state, which are among the worst Maoist-hit regions in Jharkhand.
Kumandih jungles have been a centre-stage of Maoist activities which has also witnessed several encounters between the Maoists and security forces taking toll of lives from both sides in the recent past. The state police ahead of the lok Sabha Elections had launched an extensive anti-Naxal drive to flush out the rebels from the area.
Meanwhile, the security forces have also recovered 16 sacks of power gel from a SUV in Koderma and arrested the owner of the vehicle in this regard on Monday. A case under explosives Act has been registered at Jai Nagar Police Station in Koderma.Recently, two dozens of camouflaged jackets having logos of Indian Army were also recovered by the security forces from Khunti.