By IANS,
Agartala : Security forces seized a huge cache of weapons, including some Russia-made AK rifles, from a village along the India-Bangladesh border, officials said here Wednesday.
“In a joint operation, the Tripura police and Border Security Force led by BSF Deputy Inspector General A.K. Singh recovered a large cache of arms and live ammunition Tuesday night from Karingicherra village in western Tripura,” police spokesman Nepal Das said.
“The arms and ammunition were concealed beneath earth. Outlawed militants are suspected to have placed them there,” he told reporters.
While no arrests have been made yet, security forces have launched a manhunt in the area.
The seizure included eight AK 66 rifles, 23 fully loaded magazines and 700 rounds of live ammunition.
“The banned All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) might have hidden the arms and ammunition in the area as they could not enter the state by crossing the India-Bangladesh border due to the border fencing,” a BSF official told reporters.
At least 30 base and training camps of two Tripura insurgent outfits, the ATTF and the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), are in Bangladesh, which shares a 856-km border with Tripura.
Meanwhile, Das said three more tribal separatists of NLFT have surrendered to the security forces in northern Tripura Wednesday after fleeing from their bases in Bangladesh.