Bhubaneswar: Three days after four tonnes of explosives were looted from Odisha’s Sundargarh district, security forces on Friday recovered a major portion of the materials following a gunbattle with Maoists in the border region with Jharkhand.
As per sources, the fierce exchange of fire with the red rebels erupted in a forest area around 20 kilometres inside the neighbouring state after combing operations were simultaneously launched from both Odisha and Jharkhand.
Following the operation, the security forces recovered over 75 per cent of the stolen explosives in Saranda forest of Jharkhand, DIG (Western Range) Brijesh Kumar Rai said.
The explosives were found at Tirilposh, located close to Saranda forest, on Odisha-Jharkhand border. One of the security personnel was injured in an explosion during the combing operation, he said.
The Odisha Police had earlier confirmed that Maoists from Jharkhand were involved in the hijacking of an explosive laden truck from the stone quarry in K Balang area in Sundargarh on Tuesday.
According to police, around 30 armed Maoists from Jharkhand reached the stone quarry at around 10 am on May 27 and hijacked the gelatine sticks laden truck by holding the employees as well as the driver of the vehicle at gunpoint.
The incident has triggered apprehensions that the stolen explosives might be used against the security forces engaged in anti-Maoists operations in Odisha and other states.
Soon after the incident, Director General of Police (DGP) YB Khurania, IG (Operations) Deepak Kumar and other senior police officials rushed to Rourkela and took stock of the investigation.
The security forces from Odisha and Jharkhand along with the CRPF personnel had launched a massive search operation to retrieve the stolen explosives.
It may be noted that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) was entrusted to probe the high-profile explosive loot by Maoists.
