Bihar police and the CRPF recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition purportedly belonging to the Maoists in Bihar’s Aurangabad district, the officials said on Tuesday.

Several of them are sophisticated weapons, with markings denoting that they were looted from the security forces.

The recovered weapons include an INSAS rifle, a self-loading rifle (SLR), one bolt-action rifle, two bharmar guns, four pistols, one revolver, three katta (country-made pistols) and an improvised carbine.

Apart from the firearms, 21 can bombs or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) built in steel cans, 623 detonators, 21 pressure switches and fuse wires were also part of the recovered cache.

Aurangabad superintendent of police (SP) Kantesh Kumar Mishra told reporters: “The weapons and ammunition were recovered from the hilly and forested areas of Laduiyya Pahad area under Madanpur police station during a joint operation in the district on Monday. They seem to have been hidden by the Maoists for future use.”

The weapons were stashed in plastic packets and hidden underneath stone boulders.