GUWAHATI: On January 28, Assam Police released a list of a huge cache of arms and ammunition recovered from the Bodo Territorial Region (BTR) so far.
This comes after Bodoland Territorial Chief Chief Pramod Boro asked Union Home Minister Amit Shah to take action in order to unearth hidden arms and ammunition in the Bodo belt.
In his address during the inaugural ceremony of the first anniversary celebrations of the BTR Accord at Kokrajhar on Sunday, Boro said that while the region had achieved peace, fear still gripped the region due to the presence of large quantities of arms and ammunition in the Bodo dominated North Bank Districts.
According to the list released by Assam Police, the seized cache includes four HK series rifles, 56 AK series rifles, a rocket launcher, a grenade launcher, 22 country made rifles among others.
The cache also includes explosives, detonators, bombs, magazines, bullets and grenades.
The police have also recovered communication tools such as satellite phones, walkie-talkie etc.
The list was shared on Twitter by Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order GP Singh.
The Bodo areas on the north bank of the Brahmaputra witnessed large scale violence and bloodshed for almost three decades till the signing of the BTR accord on January 27, 2020. The accord restored much needed peace in the region. Guwahati too faced the brunt of violence when the city witnessed serial blasts in October 30, 2008 which left many dead.
Home Minister Amit Shah, while speaking on the occasion of first BTR Accord Day celebration rally, said that 500 crore rupees have been sanctioned for building a road network in the Bodo region. He also added that 700 members of 8 armed groups laid down arms and the government is putting their efforts towards the settlement for Bru-Reang issue.