KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, March 10: Police and paramilitary forces on Thursday recovered a powerful IED from the Kolhan forest division of West Singhbhum.
The explosive device weighing 3.5 kg was planted in a forest path in the Tumbahaka jungle under the Tonto thana area of the district about 140 km away from Jamshedpur.
According to a press release issued by the West Singhbhum district police, the IED was defused on the spot by a bomb disposal squad belonging to the CRPF.
Unlike IEDs recovered earlier from the Kolhan forest division in the recent past, the one detected on Thursday was comparatively more powerful and could have caused greater casualties if exploded.
Earlier, the IEDs either exploded or detected in the forest were of low intensity, but the rebels are suspected to have planted the powerful device recently.
Several top Naxal leaders, including Misir Besra, have harboured in the dense jungle in the Kolhan and Porahat forest divisions having planted IEDs extensively there since January this year. Having come to know about the presence of a large number of Naxals there, the police and paramilitary forces have launched anti-insurgency operations since January 11 to flush them out.
Till now, three villagers were killed and 15 paramilitary jawans have sustained injuries in over a dozen of IED blasts.
