Police fear PWG may have airstrip

Does the People’s War Group (PWG), the outlawed Naxalite outfit, have a secret air runway of its own? Theft of costly non-directional b...

Does the People’s War Group (PWG), the outlawed Naxalite outfit, have a secret air runway of its own? Theft of costly non-directional beckon (NDB) air signal control device from Jeypore airstrip recently has triggered suspicions the group might be having its own runway even as investigating officials maintain it is too early to link the incident to the outfit.

The NDB, with the capability of controlling signals of planes flying as far as 16 km off the runway, had been lying with the Jeypore airstrip ever since the latter’s inception and was being used to control the state’s air traffic.

Officials of the Public Works Department, which looks after the airstrip, found the signal control device missing after pilots complained to airport authorities that they had not been receiving signals from the NDB. A case was later registered with the Jeypore police station. Koraput police has sent an officer to Bhubaneswar to consult aviation engineers to find out if the stolen device can be misused.

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Police sources say that the device can be an effective tool for sabotage. Police are all the more worried as the southern districts of the state fall in the flight route of at least four national and international aircraft. Besides, Indian Air Force aircraft are manufactured in HAL, Sunabeda. The stolen air control device can be used against all these aircraft, they say.

The fact that the device is hardly of any use to ordinary criminals has further given credence to the suspicion of the PWG’s involvement. Sources said the outfit might be using airways to acquire arms and ammunition from distant places.

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