Big blow to Naxals - Weapons, explosives unit destroyed in Sukma

Security forces have destroyed a major Maoist “ordnance factory” engaged in manufacturing weapons and explosives in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district, officials confirmed on Saturday.

Acting on precise intelligence inputs, a joint team comprising the Sukma District Force and the 203rd battalion of CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action), an elite unit of the CRPF, launched a special operation on Friday. The team traced the clandestine manufacturing unit of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) hidden deep inside a forested hill near Koimenta village.

During the raid, security personnel seized a large cache of arms-making machinery and components, including a vertical milling machine, two barrel grenade launchers (BGL), 12 empty BGL shells, 94 BGL heads, a hand grinder machine, six wooden rifle butts, and several trigger mechanisms. Other recovered items included solar batteries, a borewell drilling bit, gas cutter heads, directional IED pipes, metal moulding pots, iron cutter wheels, steel pipe pieces, and a large quantity of iron scrap all used for assembling weapons and explosives.

Officials said the operation was launched from the Metaguda camp, and all personnel returned safely after successfully completing the mission. “Such operations will continue with greater intensity. The sustained efforts have significantly weakened the Maoists’ manufacturing and operational capabilities,” a senior police officer stated.

According to police data, 249 Naxalites have been killed in Chhattisgarh this year in various encounters. Among them was Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju (70), the general secretary and top leader of the CPI (Maoist), along with five central committee members.

Of the total neutralized, 220 were killed in the Bastar division which includes Sukma and six other districts, 27 in Gariaband (Raipur division), and two in Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki (Durg division).