Chhattisgarh: 989 Weapons Recovered From Maoists in Bastar in Last 6 Years

Raipur: As many as 989 weapons, including sophisticated firearms like AK 47, INSAS, LMGs and SLR rifles, were recovered in Chhattisgarh following encounters with the reds, and from the arrested and surrendered Naxals in the last six years.

Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister Vijay Sharma, who holds home portfolio, revealed this in the state Assembly here on Thursday.

He further said that 48 weapons were looted by the Maoists from the security personnel between January one, 2019 and January 31 this year.

The looted weapons included two LMGs, 29 AK 47 rifles, two SLR files, seven INSAS rifles and three nine mm pistols.

Giving a breakup of the weapons recovered from the Naxals, he said that 671 weapons were recovered by the security forces following the encounters during the period.

While 80 firearms were seized from the arrested Naxals, 238 weapons were returned to the police by the surrendered Maoists during the period.

The recovered weapons comprised 70 AK-47s, 82 Self Loading Rifles (SLRs), and 75 INSAS rifles.

Meanwhile, security forces have recovered a huge Maoist arms dump in a village near Kumradi Hills falling under Abujhmad area of Narayanpur district in south Bastar in Chhattisgarh.

The recovery yielded 100 meters of prima cord, 20 meters each of safety fuse and orange fuse, around 35 kgs of ‘sutli bombs’ (made of jute twine), 38 kgs of brown fertilizer powder, and 18 kgs of improvised explosives.

This apart, one improvised rocket launcher, 13 rocket launcher cells, 19 heavy mortar cells, one large improvised barrel grenade launcher (BGL), one small improvised BGL, along with BGL cartridges in medium, small and large sizes, totaling 35 pieces.