POLICE ARREST TWO MAOISTS AND SEIZE HUGE CACHE OF EXPLOSIVES IN EASTERN INDIA

NATURAL WITH HINDI AND BENGALI SPEECH

DURATION: 2.12

SOURCE: ANI (PART QUALITY AS INCOMING)

TV AND WEB RESTRICTIONS: NO ACCESS BBC

Police arrest two Maoists and seize huge cache of explosives in eastern India.

Police in India's eastern state of Jharkhand recover over 230 packets of power gel material from two Maoists while villagers in Medinipur district of neighbouring West Bengal voice their apprehensions over the acts of ultras.

SHOWS:

JAMTARA, JHARKHAND, INDIA (APRIL 08, 2012) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (ANI-NO ACCESS BBC)

1. EXTERIOR OF A POLICE STATION

2. PARKED VEHICLES OUTSIDE THE POLICE STATION

3. POLICEMEN WALKING WITH A BAG OF RECOVERED AMMUNITION

4. TWO ARRESTED MAOISTS WALKING

5. POWER GELS LYING ON A TABLE

6. ANOTHER PACKET OF POWER GEL

7. (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE, JAMTARA DISTRICT, SUNIL BHASKAR, SAYING:"On the basis of a secret information we raided a few areas around a police station where we recovered 230 pieces of power gels."

8. BHASKAR SITTING WITH ANOTHER POLICE OFFICER AT A PRESS CONFERENCE

9. (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE, JAMTARA DISTRICT, SUNIL BHASKAR, SAYING:"The recovered cache is very explosive in nature. There is no denying that there is a slight decline in the Maoist activities; however we are vigilant and attempt to keep rebels at bay. We always act swiftly to prevent Maoist attacks."

10. EXPLOSIVES BEING DESTROYED

GARHBETA, MEDINIPUR, WEST BENGAL, INDIA (APRIL 08, 2012) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (ANI-NO ACCESS BBC)

11. VILLAGERS WALKING

12. EXTERIOR OF A RESIDENCE

13. VILLAGERS STANDING

14. A POSTER STUCK BY MAOISTS ON A TREE

15. ANOTHER POSTER

16. (SOUNDBITE) (Bengali) A LOCAL OF GARHBETA, EZARUL MONDAL, SAYING:"The Maoists threatened us and we did not obey their orders resulting in which they killed one of one our villagers brutally. The Maoist named Jiyarul Molla Jhapur is trying to establish his network near our village and is pasting such posters to scare us."

17. A POSTER PASTED BY THE MAOISTS

18. ANOTHER POSTER

STORY: Acting on a tip off, police in Jamtara district of India's eastern state of Jharkhand nabbed two Maoists and recovered over 230 packets of power explosive gels material from their possession on Sunday (April 08).

Briefing the mediapersons top brass of the district police gave details of the arrest.

"On the basis of a secret information we raided a few areas around a police station where we recovered 230 pieces of power gels," said Sunil Bhaskar, Superintendent of Police, Jamtara.

Further he said that the police is vigilant to thwart illegal aims of the Maoists.

"The recovered cache is very explosive in nature. There is no denying that there is a slight decline in the Maoist activities; however we are vigilant and attempt to keep rebels at bay. We always act swiftly to prevent Maoist attacks," added Bhaskar.

Meanwhile at Garhbeta village in Medinipur district of the neighbouring state of West Bengal, Maoists tried to threaten locals by issuing warning.

The villagers said that the letter was a result of their ignoring certain orders of the Maoists.

"The Maoists threatened us and we did not obey their orders resulting in which they killed one of one our villagers brutally. The Maoist named Jiyarul Molla Jhapur is trying to establish his network near our village and is pasting such posters to scare us," said a resident of Garhbeta, Ezarul Mondal.

Despite strong measures initiated by the federal government to crush the ultras, the Maoist insurgency has gripped nearly one-third of the country in its violent tentacles, spreading into the interiors of 20 of India's 28 states.

The prime victims of the atrocities and the fear mongering spread by the Maoists as part of a violent, ideology-driven struggle for 'rights and development of the marginalised' are the innocent rural villagers and tribals.

Also known as Naxals, the rebels have fought for decades in a wide swathe of central and eastern India including many resource-rich regions where tensions run high between poor farmers and industrial developers.

The government calls them the main internal security threat and an obstacle to higher growth and more jobs in Asia's third-largest economy. Hundreds die annually in the conflict, although levels of violence have fallen in recent years.

Recently, the Indian government proposed to set up a National Counter Terrorism Centre as one of the measures to take coordinated action against the ultras.