Sundargarh: District Volunteer Force (DVF) jawans on Friday seized a landmine weighing more than 10 kg from the railway tracks near Topadihi under Koida police limits in Odisha’s Sundargarh district.
According to reports, local villagers spotted the landmine on the railway tracks and informed the police.
Soon after, DVF and police personnel rushed to the spot and seized the landmine. A bomb disposal team defused the landmine in a nearby forest.
Search operations have been intensified in the entire area after the incident and, especially in the wake of the Naxal violence in the Odisha-Jharkhand border.
Meanwhile, the Railways has alerted the station masters of Topadihi and neighbouring railway stations about potential Maoist sabotages in the region.
According to another report, following a preliminary investigation, the local SDPO said that the landmine was very old and did not pose much of a hazard.
