Arms seized in Assam, three arrested

Guwahati, March 27 (IANS) Security forces in Assam have seized arms and ammunition and arrested three people in two separate incidents in the state Tuesday, officials said.

While the first incident took place under Sootea police station in Sonitpur district, the second incident took place at Kamakhya railway station in Guwahati.

In the first incident, a joint team of Assam Rifles and army arrested two people and recovered two .303 rifles, 61 rounds of live ammunition, three silencers, an IED and a detonator from their possession early Tuesday at Bhoroiguri.

An amount of Rs.4 lakh was also recovered from their possession.

The two arrested men were identified as Hazrat Ali and Rafikul Ali, sources said adding that interrogation is on to find whether they belong to any militant outfit.

The two were later handed over to Sonitpur police.

In the other incident, the Government Railway Police (GRP) at the railway station arrested Shiv Kumar from a New Delhi-bound train Tuesday afternoon and recovered two home-made pistols from his possession.

Sources in the GRP said Kumar was on his way to Bihar and that he bought the two pistols from a man called Amar in Guwahati for Rs.15,000 each.

"Shiv Kumar has confessed that he has been ferrying arms to Bihar for last three months from Guwahati. We are trying to get some details about Amar," the sources said adding that arrest of Amar is likely to expose the arms smuggling racket here.