TURA: East Garo Hills police have on Wednesday unearthed a huge stock of GNLA ammunition left behind by its slain chief Sohan D Shira in four different jungle sites across Simsang river.
The irony is that police were led to two of the sites by villagers themselves many of whom were once staunch supporters of the dreaded militant chief.
The stash of ammunition totaling 3505 live rounds included 320 rounds of a Heavy Machine Gun (HMG), a powerful weapon that can take down a helicopter in midair.
Sohan is known to have had two HMGs in his possession and while alive use to display the weapons pictures on social media.
Garo Hills police have been scouting the dense forests for the past three weeks in the hope of recovering the weapons before it falls into hands of criminals and wannabe militants.
Wednesday’s search was in the forests surrounding four villages, Dorengkigre, Chachatgre, Bawegre and Nengmandalgre- once strongholds of Sohan Shira.
With Sohan no more, villagers openly came forward to help police in the search for the hidden armaments.
They successfully led police teams to two sites and unearthed the weapons.
Two sites were found at Dorengkigre and one site each were at Chachatgre and Nengmandalgre.
A plastic drum to store water was found neatly buried underground. Inside the sealed drum was a huge number of ammunition. At another site they uncovered a military grade waterproof sheet which also contained ammunition and remote control devices.