Three Naxals held in Dantewada, explosives recovered

ThreeNaxals including a woman were arrested in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Dantewada district while they were allegedly planning to plant bombs to target security personnel during the Lok Sabha polls, a police official said Sunday.

Explosives, including a 'tiffin bomb' and three grenade-headed arrows were recovered from them, Dantewada Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava told PTI.

Acting on specific information, a joint team of District Reserve Guard (DRG) and District Force of the police arrested Bhima Potam (23), Aaytu Atra (25) and Lachhi Atra (33), a woman, from Raja Bangla area Saturday evening, he said.

All three were members of the 'jan militia' of the Maoists in Bhairmgarh area of neighbouring Bijapur district for the past several years, he said.

Two bags containing a tiffin bomb (explosives packed in a tiffin box), a locally-made hand grenade, three 'arrow bombs' (arrows with grenades attached to the tip), three gelatin rods and an electronic detonator were recovered from them, he said.

The trio revealed that their job was to keep a watch on the movement of security forces and plant explosives to target them during the coming Lok Sabha elections, Pallava added.

Dantewada district falls in Bastar constituency where polling will be held on April 11.

Maoists have given a call for a boycott of the elections.

State police and paramilitary forces have intensified anti-Naxal operations ahead of the polls.