From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Assam Police recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition that were being transshipped to East Garo Hills of Meghalaya from Dimapur for the outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) and arrested seven persons including two cadres of the militant group.
Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) L R Bishnoi informed that acting on a tip-off a joint team of Assam and Meghalaya police on late Tuesday night intercepted a TATA pick-up van at Khetri on the NH 37 and recovered the arms and ammunition that were concealed in various parts of the vehicle including tyres, body, engine parts etc.
He said five persons were arrested during the operation while two more persons were arrested in the connection by Nagaland police in Dimapur. Two of the arrested were cadres of the GNLA. There was, however, no senior leader of the outfit among the arrested.
The police official informed that the recovery included ten magazines of AK-47 assault rifles, one magazine of carbine, two AK 47 rifles, one shot gun, sic pistols of various calibers including 9 mm, 7.65 mm, .22 etc, 254 rounds of assorted ammunition, one grenade, one wireless set with an extra antenna.
“The arms were enroute from Dimapur in Nagaland to East Garo Hills area of Meghalaya and was for the GNLA,” Bishnoi said.
He said various militant groups were trying to make use of Guwahati as a transit point for arms shipment.
Bishnoi said police forces of Assam and Meghalaya were working jointly to thwart the designs militant groups. There is coordination with Nagaland police too.
“Since March this year, this is our fifth successful operation jointly conducted with Meghalaya police. We have arrested 20 GNLA cadres and recovered seven vehicles and huge amount of arms and ammunition so far,” he said.
