GUWAHATI: The National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), which was involved in the December 23 massacre of the Adivasis in Assam’s Kokrajhar and Sonitpur districts, suffered a blow on Sunday when 12 of its cadre, including leaders, were apprehended by joint teams of the police, the CRPF and the SSB.
The arrests come in the wake of a self-styled commander of the outfit beinggunned down on Saturday.
“Twelve rebels of the NDFB Sangbijit faction were apprehended from three places near the Indo-Bhutan border in the Manas Reserve Forest on Sunday. Operations were carried out by joint teams of the police, the CRPF and the SSB,” Inspector General of Police L R Bishnoi told Express.
He said a large cache of arms and ammunition including four AK-56 rifles, five pistols, one .303 rifle, one 315 rifle, four hand grenades, 12 magazines and 785 live cartridges were seized from the militants.
“Those apprehended include a central council member of the NDFB (Sangbijit faction), a deputy commandant, the platoon commander of Chirang district, one second-in-command and three section commanders. Only one of them is an ordinary cadre,” the IG said.
“Apparently, they were involved in the killings of the Adivasis at Narayanguri in Chirang district. We will investigate their role in the carnage,” he added.
On Saturday, B Jablang, the outfit’s Kokrajhar platoon commander, was gunned down in an encounter with the police and the SSB at Serfanguri area of the district. The police had claimed that he was the man who had led the attacks on the Adivasis at Pakriguri in Kokrajhar district.
The Centre has engaged over 10,000 personnel of the Army and paramilitary forces in Central and western Assam to pin down and neutralize the militants.