Huge arms, explosives haul in Meghalaya districts

Huge cache of arms and explosives belonging to a militant groups were recovered today in the South Garo Hills and East Jaintian Hills district during twin raids, police said.
The arms and ammunition seizure at South Garo Hills were suspected to belong to little known militant group United People's Revolutionary Alliance (UPRA), police said.
Acting on a tip-off a commando team launched a Counter-Insurgency operation in the early hours today and recovered the items from Khalu-Rongcheng area along the South Garo Hills - West Khasi Hills Border, police spokesman GHP Raju said.
The seized items included country-made arms, ammunition, VHF sets, documents and some other materials, he said.

An SRL Rifle, three .303 sniper riffles, an AK Magazine, two SLR Magazine, two .303 Magazines, three Chinese grenades, seven VHF Sets, 52live AK ammo, a letter-pad of the United People's Revolutionary Alliance and some other documents including medicines were among the weapons and materials seized, Raju said.
The recoveries were made following the arrest of former ANVC-B militant identified as Tengrak K Sangma and subsequent recovery of an AK 47 rifle, two SBBL guns, 2 AK magazines and 36 live ammunition from the same area recently.

The materials are suspected to be hidden by militants with the motive of either selling them to other militant groups or using them for committing crimes later, the spokesman said.

In another raid, huge consignment of explosives and electrical detonators were today recovered from an abandoned coal mine in East Jaintia Hills District, he said.
The district police conducted a raid at Umthe areas under Sutnga Elaka and seized huge cache of explosives and electrical detonators from a labour camp located near the abandoned coal mine, Raju said.
A total of 98 gelatin sticks and 703 electric detonators were recovered and seized during raid, he said.