ONGOLE: The police unearthed five major dumps in Nallamala forest area and recovered huge quantity of arms and ammunition.

The recovered armaments include powerful weapons besides twenty-five rocket launchers with seven live missiles.

Superintendent of Police N. Balasubramanyam on Tuesday arranged a demonstration to mediapersons at the Police Parade Grounds to show how the rocket launchers can be used and the devastation they can cause .

Police elated

The police, however, were elated on realising that the rocket launchers were not technically perfect for the Maoists to use them.

The rocket launchers, which the Maoists got manufactured, lack safety pins necessary to control the firing of missiles.

The weapons and armaments that were recovered by the police are the ones that the Maoists looted from the Korapur Armed Reserve Police station in Orrisa two years ago.

In a major attack they had then taken away nearly 1,000 rifles and ammunition. They also took away a rocket launcher then, which they used as a model to manufacture their own ones.

Failed attacks

The Superintendent of Police said that the Maoists had used the rocket launchers to attack a police station at Sileru and at a police party in Anantapur district.

They failed on both the occasions as they were defective, he said.

He said that some of the weapons recovered from the dumps were more powerful than the ones used by the police.

For instance, an automatic riffle recovered from the dump can deliver ten rounds at a time while those with the police can deliver only five rounds at a time.

The recovered weapons include 9 mm carbine, 410 musket, 36 (0) riffle, 8mm riffle, .38 revolver, 32 pistols, 80 electronic detonators, 18 VHF sets, 2 walkie-talkies and 50-kg gelatine sticks.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail