File AFP photo shows Maoists attending a training camp in Chhattisgarh

NEW DELHI: Innovative ' Rambo arrows ', an imaginative take on the ones Sylvester Stallone made famous, have become popular with Naxalites who are using explosive arrow heads to disorient security forces.

As compared to the "originals" that were made of steel and could down a chopper, the versions used by the Naxalites contain low grade explosives but which generate intense heat and smoke and can distract security personnel.

"The arrow head carries low grade gunpowder or firecracker powder which explodes after hitting the target. It doesn't cause much damage but disorients security personnel. This makes it easy for Naxalites to inflict fatal battle injuries," a home ministry report said.

The report, confirmed by officers, said the Maoists were increasingly using this technique instead of high grade explosives that cause wider damage but also render useless weapons that could be looted.

This tactic was prominently witnessed on April 24 last year, the report said, when Naxalites carried out a deadly attack in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh that killed 25 CRPF men and their weapons were "looted".

Besides the 'Rambo arrow', the report said the Maoists have also "developed" improvised mortars and rockets.

"In the rockets, a conical nose filled with explosives is welded into the tail section which is filled with low explosive propellant fuel and the funnel shaped nozzle on the tail produces thrust and fins loosely screwed to the tail provide stability to the rockets in flight," it said .

It added that the Maoists had also devised a smart way of concealing crude bombs in animal excreta to deceive sniffer dogs of security teams from detecting and alerting their masters.

Two canines of the CRPF, famed as the 'Osama hunters', were killed last year due to Maoist planted IEDs in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

