Srinagar: A large quantity of arms and ammunition was recovered after security forces arrested two persons near the Jawahar tunnel in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Wednesday.
The arrests were made on Tuesday night.
The operation was carried out jointly by the police and the army. The weapons were recovered from a truck coming from Jammu.
“Two suspects arrested in a joint operation near Jawahar Tunnel, Kulgam at midnight yesterday based on J&K police inputs,” the army said.
The recovered weapons included one AK-47 rifle with two magazines, one M4 US carbine with three magazines and six Chinese pistols with 12 magazines.
The pistols were especially meant to lure youth and recruit more people to fuel militancy in South Kashmir, according to J&K Police.
“Joint teams of security forces along with police stopped a truck and recovered huge quantities of arms and ammunition including US-made M-4 carbine and AK-47, besides six Chinese pistols. The pistols were seemingly meant for recruiting new people into militancy,” said Atul Goel, J&K Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) for South Kashmir range, while addressing a press conference at Amno Police camp at Kulgam.
He said police have so far been able to “contain the local militant recruitment after it witnessed a sharp rise earlier”. “We will not allow the recruitment to gain ground again,” he added.
Asked about the arrests made and whether the weapon consignment was meant to be delivered in South Kashmir, he said that two people including the driver of the truck and the Co-driver have been arrested and a special investigation team (SIT) has been constituted to find out for whom the weapons were meant to be delivered.
“Prima facie it looks like that the pistol consignment was meant for recruitment of new youth. Investigations are on and more details will come to fore,” he said. “One thing is clear that weapon consignment was obviously to fuel militancy in South Kashmir,” he said.
