TURA: A massive stockpile of arms and ammunition left behind by slain GNLA chief Sohan D Shira was recovered from a forested area near the Simsang river in East Garo Hills on Wednesday morning.
East Garo Hills police, with the help of villagers, carried out search operations inside the forests bordering Dorengkigre and Bawegre villages located across the Simsang river, about 15 km from district headquarters Williamnagar.
“Some of the weapons were simply stashed in the bushes while others were buried in the ground. Villagers also joined in the search operation and some of the places where the weapons were concealed were revealed by them,” East Garo Hills SP R T G Momin said.
This was the biggest haul so far.
The recovered weapons include one 303 LMG, two AK rifles, one H&K rifle, four SBML barrels, five UBGL cells, five AK rifle magazines, two rockets (RPG), one 9mm magazine, one 9mm carbine magazine, one remote control, one signal booster, 12 numbers of IED remote circuits, 30 AK rifle bullets, eight pistols, 2 kg of gelatin sticks, 66 electronic detonators and seven cleaning rods.
Police suspect that one of the recovered weapons, an AK, is likely to have been taken away by the militants during an ambush on a police party.
“We are unable to say from which ambush the weapon was taken away. But going by the make and how it operates, it resembles the ones used by police and those used by the GNLA have a different mechanism,” the police chief said.
Earlier, during various search operations police had recovered GNLA weapons from different locations across the Simsang soon after the killing of Shira.
