By IANS,
Guwahati : Police Saturday made a huge arms haul, seizing 27 AK-56 assault rifles and ammunition from a house in an Assam village, officials said.
A police spokesman said the weapons were seized from a house at village Podumphula near Sadiya town, about 550 km east of Assam’s main city of Guwahati.
“Acting on specific inputs, we raided the house and recovered 27 AK-56 rifles, a large quantity of ammunition, besides some cash,” a police official said.
Police have detained the owner of the house for questioning.
A faction of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), which is operating a ceasefire with the central government, claimed the weapons belonged to them.
“The weapons actually belonged to us and were kept in that house by one of our cadres who unfortunately died before we entered into a ceasefire,” pro-talk ULFA commander Jiten Dutta said.
“We did not know that the arms were kept in that house before. We came to know about it only recently and immediately informed the police,” he said.
The A and C companies of ULFA’s 28th battalion, one of the most potent striking units of the outfit, declared a unilateral ceasefire June last year.
“The police should keep the weapons at one of the designated camps as per the ceasefire terms. It is we who have informed the police about the weapons,” Dutta added.
There are two designated camps set up by the government in eastern Assam to house militants belonging to ULFA’s pro-talk group that is operating a ceasefire.