Arms, banners seized from Naxal hideout busted in Chhattisgarh

The Border Security Force (BSF) on Thursday busted a Maoist hideout and recovered a cache of arms and Naxal banners from a dense forest in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district.

Based on specific inputs, a team of the BSF's 35th battalion had launched an operation from its Sulangi camp in the interiors of an area under Siksod police station limits, Inspector General, BSF Bhilai Headquarters, Mahendra Singh said.

While cordoning off the targeted location near Tekapani village, around 11 kms from Sulangi, they spotted the Maoist hideout and recovered 10 SBML (single barrel muzzle loading) guns hidden inside the cavity of two separate trees, he said.

Some old paint containers, a brush, Maoist banners, writing material and a pamphlet were also recovered from the spot, the IG said. Prima facie it seems that the weapons were dumped in the area 2-3 months back by Maoists, he said.

The search operation was underway in the region, located around 200 km away from the state capital Raipur, he said.

The seizure has been made at a time when the Naxals are opposing various developmental works, including construction of roads at various places, in the state.

On April 24, as many as 25 CRPF personnel were killed and seven others injured when the Naxals attacked a patrol party of the paramilitary troops while they were ensuring security to road construction work near Burkapal village of the state's Sukma district.