Chhattisgarh police is planning to launch a major operation shortly to seize gun factories run by Naxals in the state, police sources said on Sunday.
Sources said intelligence has already identified a number of weapons manufacturing units producing various types of firearms ranging from country made pistols to 302 rifles in dense forests of Bastar and Mahasamund districts. Intel reports said the units, whose number may be no less than 500, are small in size, even run in huts and cottages deep inside forests.
“A large number of arms factories run by Naxals have been identified in Bastar jungles and in forested areas in border regions of eastern Chhattisgarh and western Orissa. Maoists have been operating these units since long to feed their armouries. Difficult terrain and dense forests have prevented police from entering these areas to destroy these illegal arms factories,” a senior intelligence officer told this newspaper requesting anonymity.
Police sources disclosed that security forces have already prepared a strategy to destroy these factories.
“A strategy to seize these arms producing units has already been put in place. The strategy involved sudden deployment of commandos by helicopters to help the ground assault forces during raids on these units,” the police officer said.
“The strategy was successfully tested when security forces seized a Maoist gun factory at Kedwal in dense jungles of Chintagufa in Dantewada district on December 21. Commandos were dropped at the designated location from a helicopter to help nearly 600-strong security forces to lay siege the unit and destroy it,” he revealed.
Sources disclosed to this newspaper that existence of such arms making units has been reported in Abujhmad, Kanker, Nagari, Sihaba, Sitanadi, Chura, Gariabandh, Debbhog, Ammamora, Charraunda, Rasela, Komakhana, Naram, Khati, Kasekara, and Tuhulu areas in Bastar and Mahasamund regions.
“All the weapon manufacturing units are strategically located in liberated zones of Naxals to help the rebels supply the arms produced in factories to their operation areas smoothly in forest routes without attracting attention of security forces,” police sources added.