Bhubaneswar( Focus Plus) : Huge quantities of explosives were seized from two vehicles near a petrol pump in Odisha’s Rourkela city today.
The two vehicles were reportedly found abandoned near the filling station in Raghunathpali area of the Steel City in the morning.
On being informed by the owner of the petrol pump, the police along with the local Tahsildar and Mining Department officials reached the spot and checked the two vehicles.
The cops found around 160 packs of explosives from the two vehicles, reports said.
“The two vehicles were found abandoned near the parking area of the petrol pump today. We immediately informed the incident to the police. The cops along with other officials reached the spot and searched the vehicles and found the explosives,” said the owner of the filling station.
It is worth mentioning here that a group of Maoists from neighbouring Jharkhand had stolen around four tonnes of explosives from a stone quarry in K. Balang area of Sundargarh district on May 27.
The Maoists reportedly hijacked a gelatine sticks-laden truck from the stone quarry by threatening its employees at gunpoint and stole the explosives.
Soon after the incident, the security forces from Odisha and Jharkhand along the CRPF launched a massive operation to recover the stolen explosives.
The security forces recovered around 70 per cent of the stolen explosives during a combing operation in Saranda forest in Jharkhand on May 30.
