Raipur, March 28: Maoist rebels raided a mining facility of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) in Durg around 3pm yesterday and walked away with about 2 tonnes of explosives.

More than 100 armed rebels reached Mahamaya mines in Dallirajhara area in Durg, some 170km from here, in the afternoon. Iron ore to SAIL’s flagship entity — Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) — is supplied from the Mahamaya mines.

According to senior police officers, the raid was meticulously planned as a truckload of explosives had reached the mines right in the afternoon on that day. Explosives are never stocked in the mines and are supplied twice a week, as the area is always under rebel threat.

Rebels overpowered SAIL’s mine’s officials and employees at gunpoint and asked them to stop work and later locked them. Reports state that the rebels stayed in the mines for more than five hours before they fled with the explosives in a van and other vehicles.

They also took 10 officials and employees hostage and later freed them.

Police reinforcement could reach the area late in the evening, as the authorities received information regarding the raid when two employees slipped out and managed to reach Dallirajhara after travelling for two hours.

Afterwards, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel, along with the police, rushed to the spot. But, the rebels had managed to find a safe passage into the adjoining forests by then.

Till midnight, senior officers did not officially confirm the incident, as SAIL officials were not in a position to affirm the loot either.

Transportation of iron ore from the mines was also affected as more than 80 trucks of ore were left stranded in the forests and hilly terrain on the approach route of the mines.

“The rebels had blocked trucks to stop reinforcement and took away the drivers’ keys,” a police officer said, adding that on Friday morning, the road was cleared.

This was the second biggest incident of explosives loot from industrial facilities in Chhattisgarh after rebels raided the magazine of National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) in Dantewada district and walked away with 20 tonnes of explosives after killing eight CISF personnel in February 2006.