AK-47 looted during 2013 Jhiram Valley Naxal attack recovered

An AK-47 rifle, an SLR rifle and two 315 bore guns were recovered from the scene of the encounter, the senior official said.
AK 47
AK 47

RAIPUR: Seven year after the Jhiram valley Naxal attack, the police in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district have recovered an AK-47 rifle that was looted by ultras from security officer of Congress leader Mahendra Karma who was killed in the ambush, an official said on Friday.

The police have also found an SLR rifle, which was stolen by Naxals from Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel who were attacked in the NMDC mining area in Dantewada district in 2006, he said.

"These two rifles were among four weapons recovered by the police following an encounter with ultras on May 8 on the outskirts of Pardhoni village under the Manpur police station area," Rajnandgaon superintendent of police Jitendra Shukla told PTI.

Four hardcore Naxals and a police sub-inspector were killed in the gunfight, he said.

An AK-47 rifle, an SLR rifle and two 315 bore guns were recovered from the scene of the encounter, the senior official said.

"To verify the source of recovered weapons, we sent their butts and body numbers to the police headquarters (anti-naxal operations) Raipur and also to the police in Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh) and Gadchiroli (Maharashtra)," he said.

In Raipur, the serial numbers of the AK-47 rifle matched with one of the weapons looted by Maoists during the 2013 Jhiram valley attack in Bastar district, one of the deadliest in Chhattisgarh's history, he said.

On May 25, 2013, Naxals had attacked a convoy of Congress leaders during the party's 'Parivartan Rally' in Jhiram valley, killing 29 people, including the then party state chief Nand Kumar Patel, former leader of opposition Mahendra Karma and former Union Minister Vidyacharan Shukla.

"The AK-47 rifle was the service weapon of Assistant Platoon Commander Siyaram Singh, who was Karma's personal security officer," Shukla said, adding Singh was also martyred in the attack.

Similarly, the serial number of the SLR rifle matched with one of the weapons seized by Maoists after they attacked National Mineral Development Cor (NMDC)'s explosives depot in the Kirandul police station area of Dantewada in February 2006.

Seven CISF personnel were killed in the attack, while Naxals had decamped with 14 SLR rifles, one 9mm pistol and a huge cache of explosives, he said.

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