M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, October 31: Security forces have launched operation Octopus 2.0 against the Maoists in their absentia. This is because now the forces of CRPF, Cobra along with the Latehar district police are unearthing dump of the weapons, ammunition and explosives of the Maoists.
Notably, Octopus 1.0 was a tremendous success as it saw the exit of the Maoists from the Burha Pahar.
Police sources said, “Now Octopus 2.0 will be launched to flush out their hidden weapons and ammunition. Here too the security forces have attacked the Maoists’ strike power.”
A note issued from the office of Latehar SP on Monday read that 213 IEDs were neutralised in situ position which is in itself an achievement of the security forces.
Sources said that in all of the villages in the foothills of the Burha Pahar that fall under the Bareysanr police station in the Latehar district, there had never been such a cache where 213 IEDs getting neutralised.
A total of 20 weapons were recovered which included Insas to 3o3 and 315-bore rifles. Securing nearly 40 times the weapons recovered till now, security forces got their hands on over 800 live rounds of fire. A total of 41 handmade grenades were also recovered. Binoculars and Global Positioning Systems were also recovered in the cache.
Notably, the Palamu DIG R K Lakra and SP Latehar Anjani Anjan along with officials of CRPF and CoBRa Hemant Kumar, Azad Ahmad Hajam and Jitender Kumar respectively were in the press briefing in Latehar on Monday.
Sources have claimed that the state DGP Niraj Sinha’s tenure will be remembered for the release of the Burha Pahar from the clutch of Maoists. However, this release of the mountain cannot be solely due to the operations Octopus or Bulbul, but several operations of various levels carried out in the past under tenures of different DGPs as well is to be commemorated for this success.
