TURA, July 15: A hidden cache of explosive components buried underground in Gabil area, not far from the national highway which connects Anogre to Tura, has been unearthed on Wednesday night by West Garo Hills police in a special operation based on intelligence inputs.
“We received reliable inputs from our sources about a hidden cache of explosive items in the Gabil area and conducted an operation last night. Our police teams were able to recover all the items left hidden underground,” said West Garo Hills district Superintendent of Police V S Rathore while speaking to The Shillong Times.
Although Gabil falls into East Garo Hills district, it is located close to the national highway that connects Paikan in Assam with Tura.
The area has long been used by militants to cross over from the plains via Jengjal, Daddengre and Tikrikilla towards the hills and onwards to Assam via the jungles of East and North Garo Hills districts.
Wednesday night’s recovery comprised of 2.25 Kg of Gelatin explosive Sticks (, Class-2, Division- 2, Cat- ZZ), 8 number of Non-Electric Detonators, 10 clippers, cello tape and around three meters of safety fuse for use during detonation.
Though police are not ruling out the involvement of militants who may have left it hidden, an investigation has been initiated and a case registered.
“It seems the miscreants had planned to make an improvised explosive device (IED),” believes SP Rathore.
The recovery comes barely a day after an IED blast in a police colony area in Jaintia Hills that was suspected to be ignited by the banned Khasi Hills based HNLC outfit.
Police chief Rathore has urged upon the public to come forward and not hesitate in promptly alerting police regarding any suspicious activity so that law and order is maintained in the district.
It may be mentioned that during the time of the banned GNLA a large cache of arms and ammunition were left behind by its chief Sohan D Shira buried in dozens of sites across areas of militant movement. Several such sites have been discovered in recent years and even two months ago, but police believe it is just the tip of the iceberg with many more still undiscovered.