Huge cache of arms, ammunition recovered from Assam's Kokrajhar, Udalguri districts

A huge cache of arms and ammunition including explosives, grenades and a rocket launcher were recovered by a joint team of police and army in two separate incidents in Kokrajhar and Udalguri districts of Assam on Tuesday, said top officials.

Assam Director General of Police (DGP) Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta on Tuesday evening said the joint operation was launched by police and army in Leopani Nala and Ultapani Nala in Kokrajhar district along the India-Bhutan border following a tip-off received from reliable sources.

The arms and ammunition were hidden beneath the ground near a tree at Fire Line 07 in Ultapani Reserve Forest under Bishmuri Police Post, he said.

The weapons recovered included two AK-56 rifles, a grenade launcher (M-79), a .22 rifle, a .22 pistol, two 7.65 mm pistols; a 9 mm pistol and 14 country made rifles and pistols, the DGP said.

The joint operation team also recovered several magazines along with a satellite phone, 10 grenades, 6 Chinese grenades, 2 country made grenades, 34 electric detonators among others.

The DGP said the joint team launched the operation at around 6.30 pm and the team was led by Mukut Rabha, Additional Superintendent of Police (HQ) Kokrajhar.

Follow up action is being taken, he added.

In the second incident, large quantity of explosives including grenades, detonators, arms and ammunition were recovered by another joint police and army team during a search in Assam's Udalguri district on early Tuesday morning, police officials said.

Based on specific input, police from Udalguri district and a team from army's 14 Garhwal regiment launched the search operation at No.1 Badagaon under Udalguri Police Station.

They recovered an AK 56 rifle with magazine and 12 live rounds of ammunition, a rocket launcher with five live rockets, 40 pieces of 36-HE grenades and 111 detonators with wire. They were concealed under sand in the midst of banana trees inside a forest, the officials said.