Man held with 40 tonnes of explosive

Lucknow, Nov 21 (IANS) A man carrying nearly 40 tonnes of the widely used commercial explosive ammonium nitrate was arrested Friday in an Uttar Pradesh area where Maoists are known to be active, police said.

'The explosive was seized from a truck in Markoni town in Sonbhadra district, some 250 km from Lucknow,' district police chief Ram Kumar told IANS on telephone. According to police, the explosive was being brought from Chhattisgarh.

Prima facie, it appears the man named Ambreesh has connection with Maoists and came to the district to carry out explosions, said Kumar.