Arms and ammunition belonging to insurgent group seized in Imphal

Arms and ammunition were found on Thursday during a combined search operation by officials of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), 6 Assam Rifles and Imphal East Commando Police near New Salem Tangkhul Village in Kangpokpi district.

The NIA team led by Dy SP Nishant Singh, 6 Assam Rifles team led by Col. AK Das and Imphal East Commando unit led by inspector Md. Rajeev was spurred to action after NIA received credible input about the presence of a cache of arms and ammunition of Kangleipak Communist Party (People War Group) in New Salem Tangkhul Village's forest area.

After a prolonged search, the team found the arms and ammunition buried in bushes in the ground of Nangdam Thumkhong Hill.

The arms and ammunition included one AK-56 Rifle with three magazines, two pistols, two Chinese hand grenades, 180 live rounds of AK-56, ten 9 mm live rounds and four 0.38 mm live rounds. Uniforms along with jungle boots were also found concealed in the cache.

As per information received by the NIA, it is suspected that the recovered arms and ammunition were used in the firing incident on Oil Tankers at Kangpokpi in April 2017 for extortion of money under instructions of self-styled chairman of the Kangleipak Communist Party-Moirangthem Rana Meitei alias Paikhomba.

The recovery is a huge success on part of the combined efforts of NIA, 6 Assam Rifles and Imphal East Commando team to thwart the nefarious plans of the militant group and the success is a result of continued hard work and determined efforts made by the security forces and intelligence agencies to curb the insurgent activities prevailing in the Imphal Valley, read an official statement issued today.