The troopers of 31 Assam Rifles have handed over a gun-runner, Hemkhopao Taothang, to the police on Tuesday along with a van and a huge assortment of bullets.
He has been charged with being a member of the gang of the international gun-runners active along the border with Myanmar.
The troopers found 536 rounds of AK-47 rifle ammunition, 10 rounds of 9 mm and 30 rounds of 7.32 mm bullets and three radio sets. During preliminary interrogation, Taothang disclosed that there were some more ammunition at Moreh, the shanty town along the international border. On this information, 85 rounds of AK-47 ammunition and currency worth Rs.1.50 lakh were recovered.
The troopers have been arresting gun-runners, including women, on Highway 39 frequently. After buying sophisticated weapons and bullets from the international gun-runners, the men and women bring the same to Manipur for supplying to militants of the North-East region.
Grenade attack
Five pedestrians were injured when suspected militants lobbed a hand-grenade at the parked car of the proprietor of a private nursing home here on Tuesday. There had been several bomb attacks on the clinic for extortion of money. Though police have registered a case, no arrest has been made yet.
The women vendors of a shopping complex staged a sit-in protest after a hand-grenade was discovered in the complex on Tuesday. A bomb was recovered from the same complex on June 30.
