2 Grenades Recovered, 3 Cadre Arrested in Assam

Guwahati, April 18: Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Assam on April 20, an attempt by the anti-talk faction United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) to trigger a blast in Guwahati city have been foiled after security forces recovered two powerful chinese grenades and arrested three hardcore cadres of the outfit in upper Assam’s Tinsukia district on Tuesday night, police said.

Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of Assam police and army arrested three ULFA cadre including a woman and recovered two chinese hand grenades from their possession at Tinsukia on Tuesday night.

“Based on an intelligence report, we had launched a search operation at Tinsukia bus terminus and arrested the trio ULFA cadres and recovered the grenades,” a police official said.

The nabbed ULFA cadres were identified as Pawan Das, Jaya Baruah and Ganesh Das.

“The hardcore ULFA cadre Pawan Das was waiting for a night service bus at the bus terminus to bring the grenades to Guwahati, in which security forces arrested him,” police added.

Later security forces arrested Jaya Baruah and Ganesh Das.

ULFA called a 12-hour “Assam Bandh” on April 20 to protest against the PM visit to Assam.

Hemanta Kumar Nath is a correspondent in Assam, India, who reports on local news in Assam, the north east Indian state.