Palamu: The Uttarakhand Police claimed to have foiled the major attack by Maoists ahead of the state assembly elections as it has recovered a large cache of weapons from Jharna Hill in the Pipra Police station area.
Police said that Maoists had recently cleaned the weapons and applied oil to them so that they did not rust, indicating that they were planning to carry out a major attack during the upcoming assembly elections.
“To carry out the attack, the Maoists have been storing arms and ammunition. They had already collected a large cache of weapons and explosives. However, we were able to seize these weapons in the action,” they said.
“The recovered weapons include a 303 rifle, 54 SPRG (Springfield Armory) PPU written, 26 SPRG, S&G written, and 914 0.22 mm bullets. The Maoists were planning to use bullets manufactured in America and Serbia,” police said.
They claimed that some of the recovered rifles were those looted from the police by Maoist Nitesh Yadav, who has a reward of Rs 15 lakh, Maoist Sanjay Godram, who has a reward of Rs 10 lakh and Intaj Ansari alias Thengan.
Palamu SP Rishma Rameshan confirmed that after examining some recovered bullets, it was found that this number is usually written on bullets made in America and Serbia.
“A forensic investigation will be conducted in the case. Numbers are also written on the recovered rifle. It is being ascertained from where the recovered rifles were looted,” he said.
Rameshan said the recovery of 0.22 mm bullets from the Maoists was significant as these bullets were used in making landmines and mortars.
