Sensation prevails following the recovery of another rocket launcher at Bimalanagar village under Nagrijuli police outpost along the Indo-Bhutan border in Baksa district on Wednesday.
According to sources, the rocket launcher was found in river Balti when the excavator of a sand trader was mining sand in the river.
The rocket launcher was first seen by some labourers engaged in the sand mining in the river.
The labourers immediately informed some villagers about the recovery of the rocket launcher and the villagers told the Nagrijuli police in this regard.
Receiving the information, Ranjan Das, in-charge of the Nagrijuli police outpost rushed to the spot with a police team and took the custody of the rocket launcher.
The Nagrijuli police immediately communicated with the Army’s bomb experts to check and defuse the rocket launcher.
Also read: Assam: Rocket launcher recovered along Indo-Bhutan border in Baksa
Till the filing of this report, the rocket launcher has been kept on the premises of Nagrijuli police outpost.
According to the police, rocket launchers were used by some militant groups, who were taking shelter in the forest in Bhutan along the international border, during Operation All Clear.
Operation All Clear was a military operation conducted by the Royal Bhutan Army forces against Assam’s separatist militant groups in the southern regions of Bhutan from December 15, 2003, to January 3, 2004.
Police suspect that at the time of Operation All Clear, the militant groups might have thrown it in the river Balti, which was the corridor for movement of the militants of Assam.
It may be mentioned that there was also a firing range of the Indian Army along the Indo-Bhutan border.
Earlier also, such rocket launchers were recovered by police in Nagrijuli area along the Indo-Bhutan border.
In December last year, a rocket launcher was recovered on the bank of river Balti near Bimalanagar village under Nagrijuli police outpost in Baksa.