Guwahati, April 11: In a major achievement during the course of a marathon operation, Assam Police recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition which were hidden by suspected former Bodo militant outfits in the forest areas of Ultapani and Selekaguri in Kokrajhar district in the wee hours of Monday.
The recovery came in the wake of an almost 50-hour operation that was launched under the command of Kokrajhar superintendent of police, Prateek V. Thube, and additional SP (headquarters), Kokrajhar, Surjit Singh Panesar.
Kokrajhar police had launched the massive operation from the night of April 9, 2022 upon receipt of the specific information that some sophisticated weapons are kept hidden in Ultapani and Selekaguri forest areas by former National Liberation Front of Bodoland (NLFB) and United Liberation of Bodoland (ULB) cadres.
The operation ended at about 4am on Monday with the recovery of a huge cache of arms and ammunition.
“The recovered weapons include 3 AK-56, one AK-47, one telescopic Sniper Rifle, one M16 rifle, one Shirley rifle, four magazines and 130 rounds of AK series ammunition. The use of these weapons could have led to various illegal activities in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) districts,” a police official said.
According to police sources, Assam Police have taken action after some surrendered NLFB and ULB cadres had recently fled to Arunachal Pradesh from their camps in Kokrajhar and Udalguri districts in a bid to regroup in that state and also recruit new youths from BTR districts.
“Immediately after getting inputs, we had launched operations and eliminated three or four of these cadres in BTR cadres, arrested 11 cadres, recovered a few weapons and thereafter many have reported back to their camps,” a police official said.
