Imphal: A joint team of the Indian Army, Assam Rifles and Manipur Police recovered a large cache of arms, ammunition and explosives during coordinated anti-insurgency operations in Bishnupur, Kangpokpi and Thoubal districts, officials said on Tuesday.
The operations also led to the arrest of an alleged active cadre of the proscribed Kangleipak Communist Party (Apunba).
Acting on specific intelligence inputs, security forces launched a search operation near Loktak Lake on floating biomass (phumdi) close to Sendra Hill under Moirang Police Station in Bishnupur district on Tuesday morning. During the three-hour operation, they dismantled a temporary militant camp and recovered a cache of weapons and explosives concealed in the vegetation.
The recovered items included a .32 pistol with a magazine, a single-barrel breech-loading gun, a .22 bolt-action rifle, a Jefferson rifle with a magazine, nine locally made carbine firearms with magazines, two locally made MP-5 firearms with magazines, three locally made Lathode guns, two Pompi guns, six improvised explosive device (IED) packets and other accessories.
In a separate operation, Manipur Police arrested an alleged active cadre of the banned Kangleipak Communist Party (Apunba), identified as self-styled Major Arambam Bobo Singh (42), from Wangoo Mameiching in Kakching district.
Following his interrogation, a joint team conducted a cordon and search operation in the Makokching jungle under Saikul Police Station in Kangpokpi district on August 2.
During the operation, security forces recovered an M16 rifle, a Mark III rifle, a sniper rifle, a .22 bolt-action gun, 25 single-barrel guns, seven pistols, 76 live rounds of ammunition of different calibres, 179 empty cases, a rifle magazine, four Pompi guns, 36 hand grenades, 20 detonators, four Baofeng radio sets and a charger.
In another operation at Ekok Pat lake near the Arong river bank under Thoubal Police Station, security forces recovered two INSAS rifles, an MP-5 submachine gun, an SLR rifle, two .303 rifles, eight magazines, a smoke bomb and 379 live rounds of ammunition of different calibres.