BHUBANESWAR: Two days after suspected left-wing extremists (LWEs) looted a huge cache of explosives from a truck headed to a stone quarry in Sundargarh district, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday joined the investigation considering the sensitive nature of the incident.
While security forces in neighbouring states have doubled down on anti-Naxals operations by targeting and eliminating key leadership of the outlawed outfit, the loot has come as a worry since Maoists operating in Jharkhand’s Saranda forests rely on improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to carry out attacks. This prompted Odisha Police and its anti-Naxal agency Special Operation Group (SOG) to launch a major flush-out drive along the bordering region.
“An NIA team visited Rourkela to investigate the incident. Preliminary probe suggests left-wing extremists operating from Saranda forests in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand were involved in the loot of the blasting explosives,” western range DIG, Brijesh Rai told mediapersons.
Sources said looted explosives weighed about 4,000 kg. There were about 200 boxes consisting of blasting explosives. Each box had about nine gelatin sticks and weighed about 20 to 25 kg.
“As vigorous anti-Naxal operations are continuing in Chhattisgarh, the ultras are wary that security forces’ next target could be their stronghold in Saranda forest,” said a senior police officer.
Like Abujhmad in Chhattisgarh, Saranda too is located in a similar terrain with security camps set up mostly on its edges. “As Maoists in Saranda are mostly dependent on IEDs, it is suspected they were behind the loot,” the officer added.
However, the police are probing the incident from all angles including involvement of habitual offenders from Jharkhand and Odisha. “Usually, Naxals set ablaze vehicles whenever they carry out such operations and do not bother about CCTV cameras but in this particular case, they stole the digital video recorder from the stone quarry,” said sources.
The loot site was barely two km from Saranda forest. The empty vehicle was found abandoned inside the forest and its driver was unhurt. The driver told the investigators that persons involved in the loot were armed and identified themselves as insurgents and threatened him to follow their instructions.
Director General of Police YB Khurania who visited Rourkela to take stock of the investigation has directed the police to beef up security at vulnerable stone quarries.
Meanwhile, Rourkela police intensified combing operation along Odisha-Jharkhand border under the supervision of SP Nitesh Wadhwani. IG (operations) Deepak Kumar and DIG (western range) Rai are camping in the steel city.