Monday, January 10 2005 14:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Raipur: In a sensational development, Chhattisgarh police have recovered huge amount of empty ammunition cases of Pakistan and British-make from the encounter site in Balrampur district, where one SHO and two constables were killed by the Maoists.

"About 300 empty ammunition cases have been recovered from the Indrakhori area of Balrampur police district, where the CP (Maoists) activists had killed Ramchandrapur SHO and two constables in an ambush on Saturday (Jan 8, 2005)," Sarguja range Inspector General of Police A N Upadhyaya told sources in Raipur by phone.

After touring the area with Home Minister Brij Mohan Agrawal, State Director General of Police Om Prakash Rathor told sources that about half of the empty ammunition cases, that were recovered from the ambush site by Balrampur police, had foreign marks.

"Majority of the ammunition have marks of Pakistan ordinance factory and some of them have British mark," the DGP said.

Expressing surprise at the recovery of British-made ammunition cases from the Maoists, the DGP said the intelligence agencies would probe how it landed in Chhattisgarh.

"But the incident clearly reflects that the naxalites have international links to carry out their activities in India," Rathor added.

Meanwhile, the policeman Ranjit Khalko, who had gone missing since the ambush on Saturday, has returned to Ramchandrapur police station.