Meghalaya police recover huge cache of hidden weapons

The recovery was made from a forest hideout of the organisation.

East Garo Hills district Superintendent of Police (SP) R Momin said acting on intelligence inputs, a police team of East Garo Hills district launched an operation in Dorengkigre village of the district. The search teams were assisted by some villagers who helped the police to unearth some of the weapons.

During the operation in that remote place, security personnel  recovered one AK series rifle, two  two-inch morta rs, two RPG with cover, one mortal shell, one RPG launcher, one HK 5.56 mm assault rifle, one land mine detonator cap, 12 pistol magazines, 153 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition, 55 remote bomb circuits, 94 rounds of  7.62 mm ammunition, 11  bomb remote controls, one walkie talkie set and 13 electronic detonators. 

“It is suspected that the AK series rifle belong to the  police and may have been taken away by the GNLA militants in ambush. It is yet to be confirmed in which ambush, but the model is similar to the ones used by police. So far three RPGs have been recovered from different locations but this is the first time that two mortars have been recovered,” the top Meghalaya cop said.

He said that, efforts are still on to recover more  weapons.

After the killing of Sohan D Shira, C-in-C of Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), Meghalaya police is now trying to crack down on  the insurgent group and recover arms, ammunition and explosives of the outfit.

On May 13 and April 9,  the  Meghalaya police had recovered huge caches of sophisticated arms, ammunition and accessories respectively from Bawegre village area and East Garo Hills district.

(By Hemanta Kumar Nath, Guwahati)