The army seized a huge cache of ammunition and 553 anti-personnel mines from a house during a raid in Kolkata on Thursday.
KOLKATA: In the biggest seizure in a metropolitan city, a huge stockpile of anti-personnel mines and ammunition, smuggled out of an ordnance factory in West Bengal and destined for Maoists in the state, were on Thursday seized by the Indian Army and CID in a joint raid on a house here.
Describing the seizures as 'war-like stores', Army spokesman R K Das said besides 543 non-metallic model 14 anti-personnel mines, the cache included 691 pieces of 9 mm ball ammunition, 340 pieces of 7.62 ball ammunition, 58 pieces of .303 ammunition and three pieces of 5.56 INSAS ammunition.
The mines and ammunition were destined for Maoists in West Bengal, the spokesman told a press conference.
"We are also trying to figure out whether the ISI or any other militant organisation has links to the stockpile,'' he said.
According to Das, the mines and the ammunition were manufactured at the Ordnance Factory at Icchapore in North 24-Parganas district of West Bengal.
Three persons, including an army lance naik posted at the Eastern Command Headquarters here, and the owner of the house, were arrested during the raid conducted by the Army Intelligence Unit jointly with West Bengal CID.
In reply to a question, he said the lance naik, a local, was transferred here three months ago from Jammu and Kashmir. He is related to the owner of the house.
Asked how so much ammunition could be smuggled out of the ordnance factory, Das admitted that there had been a breach in security. The factory authorities had earlier lodged a complaint with the local police about thefts occurring on the premises.
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