Gadchiroli (Maharashtra), Nov 16 (IANS ) Moving swiftly, the Maharashtra Police and other security forces managed to foil a purported plot by Maoists to disrupt the November 20 Assembly elections, by recovering two IEDs on a bridge in the insurgency-hit Gadchiroli district on Saturday, an official said.
The Gadchiroli police got a reliable tip-off that Maoists had planted some improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to target a crucial bridge on the Palakot River in the Bhamragad tehsil.
A team of Bomb Detection & Disposal Squad from Gadchiroli was rushed in a helicopter to conduct an aerial survey, locate, and defuse the IEDs in the Maoist-affected region.
A joint team of Gadchiroli police, the Central Reserve Police Force, and the Border Security Force carried out the search operation and managed to locate the two potentially devastating IEDs, on the Palakota River bridge that links Bhamragad and Tadgaon.
As the BDDS teams were preparing to neutralise the two deadly IEDs and a maze of connecting wires, one of the IEDs suddenly exploded, while the other one was controlled by the team.
There are no injuries or damage in the incident and now a thorough combing-cum-search operation is underway in the neighbourhood to detect any more explosives that may have been planted there.
An official said that by this speedy action, the security forces managed to thwart the attempts by Maoists to create a scare among the people or indulge in mayhem during the Assembly elections.
The official said that other precautions like intensified patrolling in many sensitive areas of the district, tracking the covert activities of the Reds hiding in the forests, and security increased at critical public and private installations like bridges, important roads and highways, etc.
The law enforcement teams have chalked out elaborate plans for deploying adequate security for the six Assembly constituencies going to vote in the Gadchiroli district, which usually ranks among the highest voter turnout districts in the state, the official said.