Police in the Simdega District of India's eastern Jharkhand State recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunitions of suspected Maoists, Sunday.

Authorities made the find while chasing the suspected Maoists in nearby Arani Village.

[Durga Urao, Police Superintendent]:
“Today in the afternoon, during the operation, security forces found a group of nearly 15-20 Maoists on the opposite side. Seeing the security forces, they started running and while running they threw their arms here and there. Police then followed them and recovered all the arms, especially rifles.”

Police have taken some local villagers into custody for questioning.

In recent months, Maoist rebels have stepped up attacks in response to a government security offensive to clear them out of their jungle bases.

They have spread into rural pockets of 20 states and the movement has upset business prospects worth billions of dollars in mining industries in central and eastern India.