BIG ACHIEVEMENT: Berhampur Superintendent of Police Dayal Gangwar showing gelatine sticks and other explosive material seized on Friday.

BERHAMPUR: Four hundred gelatine sticks weighing over 50 kg were seized near Pokudibandha on the outskirts of the city on Friday. It was being transported from Purushottampur area to Ankuli near the city in an autorickshaw. Gelatine and urea are major ingredients to manufacture landmines.

The police also raided the godown owned by Kora Sethi at Ankuli, to where these explosives were being transported. Sethi managed to escape. The police arrested the autorickshaw driver Chiranjeevi Mandal and a worker of the godown Hina Mandal.

Twenty-six bags of urea suspected to be kept for making explosives was seized from the autorickshaw and the godown.

Investigation on

Interrogation of the arrested persons and investigation is on to find out the persons behind the illegal transportation of explosive material.

Describing the seizure as a major breakthrough of the Berhampur police, Superintendent of Police Dayal Gangwar said these were the ingredients needed by naxalites to make landmines. "Right mixture of gelatine, urea, saw dust, sharp iron pieces, broken glass with a crude detonator or timer can make a lethal landmine or a time bomb," Mr Gangwar said.

He said the seized gelatine sticks were manufactured by a firm in Nagpur.

In the past, illegally kept gelatine sticks were seized from Digapahandi and Patrapur areas of Ganjam district. But for the first time it was a major seizure near the city.

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