The Bihar Police, in a joint operation with the CRPF, seized an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and 15 walkie-talkie sets in raids on Maoist hideouts in the Aurangabad district of Bihar on Monday.

This is the first time a drone has been recovered from the Maoists and it has left the security agencies worried about increasing sophistication and the level of preparedness among the Left-wing extremists.

The raids were conducted at Dobha, Kasmar Sthan, Bandi, Morwa, Bidainagar, Nimia Bathan and several other places under the Madanpur police station in the district on the basis of intelligence inputs. The places are located in hilly and forested terrain.

A team of the Bihar Police and 205 Cobra battalion of the CRPF led by Aurangabad superintendent of police (SP) Kantesh Kumar Mishra took part in the search operation.The security personnel recovered a drone, 15 walkie-talkie sets, near vision test kits, medicines, food items, daily use items, badges used by Maoists, 14-metre black cloth, Maoist literature and other things.“We have recovered a drone for the first time from any Maoist hideout in Bihar. Though small in size, it could be easily used to keep a watch on the movement of the security personnel in the hilly and forested terrain. It could also be used for a recce on the camps of the security forces,” Bihar Police additional director general (ADG) (operations) Sushil M. Khopde told The Telegraph.

Khopde added that the walkie-talkie sets could be used to communicate within a radius of one to two kilometres. He pointed out that the goods seized seemed to have been stashed by the Maoists retreating from the area.

However, sources in the police said that the drone and walkie-talkie sets were new and of foreign origin, which indicated that the supply lines of the Maoists were still working uninterrupted.An FIR against 11 named and 10 to 15 unnamed persons under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) was registered at the Madanpur police station in this connection. Aurangabad district is one of the Maoist hotbeds in the state and is located along Jharkhand. The extremists dominated it for decades taking advantage of the hills and forests present there, but the police and the central paramilitary forces have made inroads in recent years. The drone and walkie-talkie sets are of foreign make and the police officials expressed serious worry over the recovery.