Rayagada: A cache of firearms and ammunition were recovered from inside a reserve forest in Odisha’s Rayagada district, officials said Saturday.
The suspected Maoist dump was unearthed inside the Raghubari Reserve Forest in the Ambadala police station area during a joint operation by the District Voluntary Force (DVF) and the Special Operations Group (SOG) on July 2.
SP Raj Prasad said the recovery was the result of sustained anti-Maoist operations and actionable intelligence gathered during the interrogation of recently surrendered Maoist cadres.
“Such operations will continue to ensure that any attempt by extremists to revive their activities in the district is effectively neutralised,” the SP said.
Acting on specific inputs, security personnel launched a focused combing operation in the forest and traced the cache, police said.
Considering the possibility of IEDs being planted around the site, the district bomb disposal squad first sanitised the area before the recovery operation began, they said.
Among the arms seized were a .303 rifle, dismantled parts of a sten gun, a country-made firearm, 37 rounds of .303 ammunition, 25 rounds of 9 mm ammunition, and 10 rifle grenade launcher shells.
Preliminary investigation suggests that the weapons and ammunition belonged to the banned CPI (Maoist)’s Banshadhara-Ghumusar-Nagabali (BGN) Division, the SP said.
Officials attributed the recovery to the large-scale surrender of Maoist cadres in the district.
Rayagada achieved its target of becoming “Naxal-free” by March 31, with 16 Maoists surrendering before the police between May 2025 and February 2026.
The SP said joint operations involving the SOG, DVF and the CRPF would continue in Maoist-affected areas to detect hidden arms, prevent any resurgence of extremist activities and ensure lasting peace and security.
