Bhubaneswar: The security personnel today recovered a major portion of the 4 tonnes of explosives stolen from a stone quarry in Odisha’s Sundargarh district on May 27. 

The security forces have recovered over 70 per cent of the stolen explosives during a combing operation in Saranda forest of neighbouring Jharkhand, said DIG (Western Range) Brijesh Kumar Rai today. 

The explosives were found in Tirliposhi area of Saranda forest. A CoBRA commando, identified as Sunil Kumar, was injured in an IED explosion during the combing operation, reports said.

Exchange of fire between Maoists and security forces is going on in the Saranda forest, sources said. Reports claimed that the Maoists had laid an ambush at Tirliposhi.

However, the security forces have recovered huge quantities of Maoist items from Saranda forest during combing operation.   

The Odisha Police had earlier confirmed that Maoists from Jharkhand were involved in the hijacking of an explosive laden truck from the stone quarry in K Balang area in Sundargarh on May 27 (Tuesday).

According to police, around 30 armed Maoists from Jharkhand reached the stone quarry at around 10 am on May 27 and hijacked the gelatine sticks laden truck by holding the employees as well as the driver of the vehicle at gunpoint.

The incident has triggered apprehensions that the stolen explosives might be used against the security forces engaged in anti-Maoists operations in Odisha and other states.

Soon after the incident, Director General of Police (DGP) YB Khurania, IG (Operations) Deepak Kumar and other senior police officials rushed to Rourkela and took stock of the investigation.

The security forces from Odisha and Jharkhand along with the CRPF personnel had launched a massive search operation to retrieve the stolen explosives.