Search operations on to recover weapons in BTAD

Assam police has intensified search operations to recover weapons in Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) to ensure a violence-free council poll in the area, Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta said on Tuesday.

Huge quantities of sophisticated arms and ammunition have been recovered between April to August, the DGP told newsmen here. "Besides AK-56 and AK-47 rifles, highly sophisticated weapons like MQ-81 rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, medium machine guns and M-16 rifles have been recovered during intensified operations over the last few months", Mahanta said. Altogether 140 weapons, 305 ammunitions, 215 grenades and 22 kgs of explosions have been recovered so far, he added.

"Several groups which have a history of violence are active in the BTAD areas. With elections to the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) to be held after new dates are announced, we cannot risk the return of violence and innocent lives being lost", he said. The state police is also liaisoning with central paramilitary forces to ensure that there is no violence during the elections, the DGP added. Elections to the BTC, earlier scheduled on April 4, has been kept in abeyance until further orders due to the prevailing pandemic.