Itanagar: The Tirap police and troops of the Khonsa Battalion of Assam Rifles have apprehended six hardcore members of various insurgent groups, including the NSCN-IM and Eastern Naga National Government (ENNG).
The arrests were made following a series of operations conducted over the last 24 hours in Khonsa, the headquarters of Tirap district, the Assam Rifles said in a press release on Friday.
A large cache of arms and ammunition have also been recovered from the insurgents, the release said.
Based on specific intelligence reports, an Assam Rifles and police team launched a joint operation to nab three hardcore insurgents reportedly involved in extortion, kidnapping and nefarious activities against locals in the district.
Information provided by these three helped the team to apprehend three more insurgents. A total of six pistols, live ammunition, opium and extorted money were recovered from them.
The insurgents revealed that they had kidnapped and placed a 28-year-old woman under house arrest in Longbo village since June on suspicion of passing information of underground cadres to the security forces.
In another revelation, they said they were involved in kidnapping an RWD employee from his residence in Tirap’s Sanliam village, torturing him and extorting Rs 3 lakh from him.
The RWD employee was blindfolded, handcuffed and taken to the jungle where he was beaten up and told to pay another Rs 10 lakh.
They had also demanded Rs 50,000 from the Gram Panchayat chairperson of Sinnu village at gunpoint, the release added.
