Fertilizer bags seized from Chhattisgarh farmers

RAIPUR - Twentysix bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which can also be used in explosives, were recovered from farmers in Chhattisgarh Saturday. The farmers found them lying unclaimed on a road, police said.

Police recovered the bags from farmers of Bachhod village in Janjgir-Champa district, some 180 km from state capital Raipur.

The farmers found the 26 bags of ammonium nitrate on a road earlier and carried them to their houses, police said.

“Farmers claimed they carried the bags assuming that the fertilizer would be useful for them. Preliminary police investigations indicate that the bags fell from a truck on way to Korba from Raipur,” officials at police headquarters here said.

Ammonium nitrate is a common fertilizer but can also be used as an oxidizing agent in explosives, which Maoists use to deadly effect in the state.