Sundargarh: Police along with District Volunteer Force (DVF) personnel recently thwarted a possible attack by a Maoist group with the seizure of a tiffin bomb, weighing more than 10 kg, from the railway tracks near Topadihi under K Balang police limits in Odisha’s Sundargarh district.
According to sources, local villagers spotted the improvised explosive device (IED) on the railway tracks and informed the police. DVF and police personnel rushed to the spot and seized the landmine, which was deactivated by a bomb disposal squad in a nearby forest.
“Locals informed about having spotted a tiffin-like material and a team was then rushed to the spot. It was an old tiffin bomb which had surfaced after the mud got washed away following heavy rainfall in the last 15 days. The explosives had also degraded and it was subsequently defused,” SDPO Swaraj Debata said.
Following the seizure, search operations have been intensified in the entire area. The CRPF and RPF jawans have been deployed to keep a vigil on suspicious movements near the railway station. The Railways has also alerted the station masters of Topadihi and neighbouring railway stations about potential subversive activities by Maoists in the region.
Notably, three jawans, including one from Odisha, were martyred in an exchange of fire with Maoists in neighbouring Jharkhand last week.
