Twelve more militants of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (Songbijit) were arrested and a huge cache of arms and ammunition recovered on Sunday by a joint team of the Assam Police, the Sashastra Seema Bal and the Central Reserve Police Force from three places in forests adjoining Manas National Park under Bijini and Amguri police stations in Chirang district of Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD).
The arrested militants included a member of the outfit’s central council, a self-styled deputy commander, a self-styled platoon commander and one second-in-command.
BTAD Inspector General of Police L. R. Bisnoi, who led the operation, told The Hindu that four AK-56 rifles, four 9 mm pistols, one 7.65 mm pistol, one .303 rifle, one .315 rifle, 12 magazines, four hand grenades, 784 rounds of ammunitions were recovered from them.
Mr. Bisnoi said that in a stepped-up operation after the December 23-massacre of 63 Adivasis by the outfit in Sonitpur and Kokrajhar districts, altogether 39 militants had been arrested till Sunday while a self-styled commander of the outfit’s ‘Kokrajhar Platoon’ B. Jwblang was killed in an encounter on Saturday.
