Police seized over 1,100kg of high intensity gelatin sticks packed in 28 gunny bags in Bankura’s Shaltora on Tuesday night during a checking along the inter-district border with Purulia and West Burdwan.

This is the fourth haul of explosives in Bankura in a week.

The CID and the Bankura police had together seized around 10,000kg of explosives in three separate incidents in Shaltora, Indpur and Beliatore since March 13.

Sources said the four successive explosive seizures was the fallout of strict vigil ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The police said the explosives had been procured from Odisha, Jharkhand and Telangana.

The explosives were meant for different stone quarries and illegal coal mines spread across Bankura, Purulia, West Burdwan and Birbhum.

“Those who are running mines and stone quarries can legally purchase explosives with valid documents. But those who operate illegal mines buy the explosives from unauthorised sources,” said a police officer.

Sources said a police patrol was checking vehicles at Murlu village on the Bankura-Purulia border on Tuesday night as part of special vigil in view of Lok Sabha polls. “Two persons were carrying one gunny bag each and started running away upon seeing us. We chased them but they fled leaving the two bags behind,” said Koteswar Rao, the superintendent of police, Bankura.

The police seized the bags and found gelatin sticks inside. “We launched search for the duo and found 26 more bags full of gelatin sticks kept inside a bush in the area,” said an investigating officer.

All the 28 bags were brought to the Shaltora police station and it was found that they contained 1,127kg of explosives.

The police have also seized 10 crude bombs from a bus in Bankura’s Kotulpur. The police said they were checking buses on the road at Akurgaria in Kotulpur when they found the bombs. Ghanashaym Chakraborty was arrested.