Three Naxals held, arms recovered in Chhattisgarh

Three Naxals were arrested on Tuesday and a cache of arms, ammunition and electronic gadgets seized after security forces busted a Maoist transit camp in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district, the police said.

The incident took place at Rampur village forests, close to Mendki river, under Pratappur police station limits, Kanker Superintendent of Police R N Dash told PTI. Acting on specific inputs, a joint squad of 127th battalion of Border Security Force and district force was dispatched on a combing exercise from eight different company operating bases in Badgaon region, located around 300 kms from Raipur.

On reaching Rampur, located 35km south of Badgaon, security personnel spotted three naxals in the forests following which they surrounded the area and nabbed the cadres, the SP said.

The arrested -- Dharmu Podo, 26, Rai Singh, 47, and Nar Singh, 35 -- are wanted in several incidents of crime in the region, he said. Besides, two single barrel muzzle loading guns, a pipe bomb, a half kg explosive, three detonators, battery chargers, wires, couple of batteries, flash light batteries, electric circuits (big and small size), a loud speaker, Naxal posters and pamphlets, ammunition pouch and medicines, were recovered from their possession, he added.

The operation named 'Meghdoot', was planned ahead of ongoing Martyrs' Naxal week which is being observed by the Naxals from July 28 to August 3, Dash said.

Notably, combing operations have been intensified in the insurgency-hit pockets of the state, particularly in Bastar during Maoist's martyrs week. The call for observing martyrs' week has hit normal life in Bastar region as transporters have stopped plying buses to the remote areas.

The railways too are not running the Visakhapatnam-Kirandul train beyond Jagdalpur during the week, fearing Naxal attacks, forcing commuters to travel by bus from Jagdalpur to Kirandul.