Naxal arms factory busted in Bihar by police and CRPF personnel

Munger, Nov 27: In a first such instance in the state, a joint operation launched by police and CRPF personnel today busted an arms manufacturing unit of Maoists and seized a cache of sophisticated weapons in Munger district of Bihar.

Over 200 personnel of Bihar Police and CRPF took part in the operation and seized 16 sophisticated automatic pistols of 7.65 mm, 70 magazines as well as a large number of gun-making tools from the arms unit, which was located in the densely forested Sugaun Hills under Dharhara police station of the district.

"This is the first time that an arms manufacturing unit being operated by the Naxals has been unearthed. The raid was conducted on the basis of intelligence inputs and ASP (Operations) Navin Kumar led the team. Special Task Force (STF) Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Alok and CRPF Deputy Commandant Rajkumar Raj were also part of it," Munger Superintendent of Police (SP) Barun Kumar Sinha told PTI.

Sinha said the operation was conducted in difficult terrain during the pre-dawn hours. The forces were not able to apprehend any Naxal as they escaped taking advantage of darkness.

"For us this is a major success because this arms manufacturing unit could have provided a continuous supply of weapons to the Naxals. It could have proved dangerous for the police as the seized pistols are highly sophisticated one," Sinha added.

STF DSP Alok said the seized machinery from the gun making unit is also of good quality and of complicated nature. "The finishing of the pistols was so good, that it looked similar to the ones that we use," Alok said.

The police have started investigating the entire matter and are trying to figure out whether the persons producing the pistols were Maoists themselves or hired from outside to work for them.

PTI