A day ahead of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s planned visit to West Midnapore, the police today seized a huge cache of arms, including two powerful rocket launchers, one IED, 4 kg of explosives and several firearms from Sarenga forest area in Bankura, prompting the state administration into deciding to hire a helicopter for CM’s use there.

The two Maoists carrying the fire arms in a gunny bag, however, fled the spot riding a bike and disappeared into the Charbhaga forest bordering West Midnapore and Bankura districts.

Significantly, the IED recovered in Sarenga is similar to one that was detonated on the route of the CM’s convoy at Salboni on November 2, 2008, said state Director General of Police Bhupinder Singh.

The rocket launchers, as described by the police, are improvised ones. They look like an iron pipe with 4-5 inches of radius and have a trigger in it. “The rocket launchers are improvised ones. This is the first instance in Bengal in which police have recovered rocket launchers. Generally, the Maoists operate here by blasting mines. It seems it is a new strategy they have adopted in the state. According to the information we have got as of now, the rocket launchers have been brought from outside the state. We are conducting raids in the Jungal Mahal area,” said West Midnapore SP Visha Garg.

According to a senior police officer of Sarenga police station, following a tip-off that arms could be smuggled to West Midnapore via Sarenga forest, the Inspector-in-Charge of Sarenga Police Station, Rabi Lochan Mitra, went inside the Sarenga forest with 15 police officers and 50 STRACO jawans last night. Late night, Mitra found two bikes entering the forest. Seeing this, the officers and his force hid in the forest.

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