Banned TSPC uses proibited bore Americal weapon used by US army

RANCHI: Banned left wing extremist outfit Tritiya Sammelan Prastuti Committee (TSPC), a breakaway faction of the CPI Maoists, are using US made prohibited bore assault rifles in Jharkhand. On Saturday, Chatra police recovered one Colt M4A1 Carbine (US made) along with three magazines containing 95 rounds of ammunition and one AK-56 rifle with two magazines having 170 rounds of ammunition from Bauriachak village under Kunda police station.
SP Chatra Anjani Kumar Jha said that it was not the first time that US made rifle have been recovered from the possession of TSPC. “Almost seven month ago we had recovered yet another US made rifle but some of its parts were locally manufactured,” he said. Jha however clarified that the Saturday recovery was a pure US made carbine bearing all the coding and numbers at proper place. “Even the AK-56 is a new one which has foldable butt and proper marking of the series,” he said.
Police usually circulates the series number and markings of the weapons recovered from these outfits throughout the country within its organisation to ascertain if the weapons were looted from police in any part of the country. “There are instances when we find that the factory made weapons were not issued to police anywhere in the country,” he said.
DGP DK Pandey said that the weapons are procured from some underground arms market. “These are comparatively new weapons but since Indian army or police do not use Colt M4A1, we can be sure that it has reached them through some arms supply chain,” he said. Pandey pointed to the long international boundary that some of the north eastern states share. “The extremist outfits are well connected and there are chances that the weapons are supplied to these groups by some underground arms supplier operating at a big level,” he said.
Speaking about the Saturday recovery Jha said that Police had a tip off about TSPC leaders Akraman Ji and Aarif leading a squad to the village. Both have rewards worth Rs.15 lakh and Rs.10 lakh respectively on their heads. By the time district armed police and 190 battalion of the CRPF reached the spot the squad had left the place in a hurry leaving behind their arms and ammunition. During search operation police recovered the weapons and arrested father-son duo for hatching some plan along with the TSPC guerrillas. Budhan Bhuinya, 56 and his son Sanjay Bhuinya, 23 were found with papers related to ongoing projects of the government from which they were planning to extort a commission.