The exchange of fire involved more than 600 rounds of ammunition -- including locally made rockets. (PTI photo)
A three-hour Maoist attack on a Chhattisgarh post last night claimed no lives. But it provided much cause for worry - revealing that the rebels have massively upgraded their armory, manufacturing home-made rockets with locally available material that have a range of 300 meters.
The 100-odd group of cadres had tried to overrun a post of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police in Ranapal in Kondagoan in Chhattisgargh last night. The camp, established in January, was attacked from three sides, its approach roads were cut-off to prevent reinforcements reaching.
"The assault started little after midnight and electricity to the camp was cut-off," a senior home ministry official told NDTV. It continued for the next three hours, after which, unable to overwhelm the 70-odd soldiers, the Maoists retreated.
The exchange of fire involved more than 600 rounds of ammunition -- including locally made rockets.
Sources told NDTV that the rockets fired by the Maoists indicate that they had mastered the technique of manufacturing rockets from locally sourced material.
"Maoists have been trying to manufacture rockets but had failed so far," senior officials said. "This attack, however, shows that Maoists have successfully developed rockets that have a range of about 300 meters."
Besides the rockets, the home ministry is also worried about manner in which the camp was attacked.
"Lately, we haven't seen so many Maoists carrying a single attack or trying to overrun the post. This used to happen in 2006-07. Such attacks stopped in the last decade," the officer said.