Huge amount of arms & explosives of ULFA haul in Shillong school
: Guwahati, October 31, 2010
In a massive breakthrough, Meghalaya police seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition, purportedly belonging to the ULFA, from Madan Laban area on late Saturday night. The explosives, some in a suitcase and some buried underground, were found late last night from the premises of Assamese Navodaya Vidayalaya School located at Madan Laban locality, Police source said Students playing nearby saw some unidentified persons loitering at the school premises. The students chased the persons who left behind a suitcase.
Police found three powerful grenades, commonly known as Australian pineapples, and 125 live ammunitions from the suitcase. Later, a search conducted with the help of ‘deep search metal detectors’ led to the recovery of 2 AK 47 assault rifles, 5 kgs of explosives, 2 walkie talkies, 1 flash gun, 2 detonators and 6 magazines besides incriminating documents, all wrapped in plastic, underground below the permanent stage of the school. The weapons were recovered from underneath the stage of Shillong Vidyalaya Higher Secondary School. On seeing an abandoned suitcase in the vicinity, residents of the area informed the police leading to the ‘explosive’ discovery.
The explosives were hidden beneath the permanent stage of the school, just in front of a huge ground. It took police over two hours to safely ‘defuse’ the situation. The name of a top ULFA militant, Drishti Rajkhowa, has appeared in the expenditure bills that were recovered with the other items as well. It is learnt that Rajkhowa, mainly entrusted with looking after the outfit’s affairs in the Garo Hills region. The seizure strengthens the possibility that the militant outfit from Assam is active to quite a large extent in Meghalaya.
The documents found states that the arms and explosives were delivered to one Young Changma by top ULFA commander, the then, 2nd Lieutenant Drishti Rajkhowa way back in 17 November 1997 Changma was asked to keep the weapons at a ‘secret’ place, but police were yet to confirm as to how long the explosives were lying there. Police source informed preliminary investigation revealed that the cache has been lying undiscovered at the spot for a “reasonably good period, maybe several years, ULFA militants have been traditionally taking shelter in the area”. While the explosives have been neutralized, no arrests have been made so far.
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