Dreaded Naxal division running short of arms
The rest are small weapons like 303 rifles, nine mm pistols, revolvers and country-made guns.
Bhopal: The dreaded Darbha Division of Maoists, responsible for massacre of 76 CRPF jawans and 27 Congress leaders in 2010 and 2013 respectively in insurgency-hit Bastar in Chhattisgarh, is facing acute shortage of arms and ammunitions, documents recovered from a Naxal camp have revealed.
The Maoist documents which have listed arms currently in possession of Darbha division under which three area committees, and two platoons functioned, said barely 106 big and small weapons have been left with it now.
The depleted armoury of the division has big weapons such AK 47s, Self-Loaded Rifles (SLRs) and INSAS assault rifles, numbering six, nine and eight respectively, the Maoist documents, copies of which are in possession of this newspaper, disclosed.
The rest are small weapons like 303 rifles, nine mm pistols, revolvers and country-made guns.
“This clearly indicates that Darbha Division has become very weak militarily. That is the reason why the Maoists are often using improvised explosive device (IED) as their key weapon,” Dantewada district superintendent of police (SP) Abhishek Pallav said. According to him, pressure being mounted on Maoists in the red corridors in India in recent times had led to disruption of supply of sophisticated weapons and ammunitions to Maoists in Bastar.