Bhubaneswar, April 10: A joint CRPF and state police team today busted a Maoist camp in the forests of Keonjhar district and seized a huge cache of explosives. This was the first major operation of the security forces since the Malkangiri hostage crisis.

Keonjhar is fast emerging as the new stronghold of the rebels in the state. Keonjhar SP Ashish Kumar Singh said 72 detonators, about a dozen gelatin sticks and charger wires were seized from the camp during the raid, which began last evening.

“The camp area, which is about 3km from Liping village under Daitari police station, is being combed by the security forces,” added Singh.

Though the rebels managed to escape, they left behind their entire stock of explosives besides a GPS receiver, seven kitbags and a large pile of documents, which could provide the police an insight into their activities.

“We reckon the documents seized during the operation are the most important. We hope they would give us an idea of how the Maoists have been operating in this division and what their future plans are,” added Singh.

Significantly, the raid on the camp near Liping followed the arrest of top Maoist leader Chandra Bhushan alias Ghasi from Semiliguda in Koraput district about a week ago. Expecting a backlash from the rebels in the wake of Ghasi’s arrest, police have stepped up security throughout Koraput with a special watch being kept on the district jail where the Maoist leader, facing charges in around 200 cases, is being held.

Ghasi’s arrest had come after that of another top Maoist Shatrughna Biswal, who was the first major catch for the police in the wake of Malkangiri collector R. Vineel Krishna’s abduction by the rebels on February 16. Biswal, one of the four members of the Maoists’ Orissa State Organising Committee headed by Sabyasachi Panda, fell into the police trap on March 5 at Bargarh railway station.

The district police had arrested four Maoists and seized a large number of arms last October during raids in Telkoi, which is part of the rebels’ Kalinga Nagar division. Two months later, an armed female Maoist cadre was killed in an encounter with the police. But the most important of these encounters took place in January when cops gunned down Sadhu, a military commander of the Maoists’ Kalinga Nagar division, along with one of his associates.

However, the focus is now on Keonjhar where today’s seizure constitutes the fourth major success of the police against the rebels since last October.

“In the last one year, we have arrested at least 36 rebels while 17 have laid down arms. Among them were some top ranking Maoists operating in the Keonjhar and Jajpur belt, which together constitute the Kalinga Nagar division of the rebels,” said Keonjhar SP Ashish Kumar Singh.