Five held in Guwahati, explosives seized

GUWAHATI - Five people were arrested and a large cache of explosives, including 500 detonators and gelatin sticks, were seized here Monday, police said.

A police spokesperson said the seizures were made from a private vehicle during a routine road check on the outskirts of Assam’s main city Guwahati.

“The vehicle was stacked with explosives neatly wrapped in jute sacks with the consignment coming from somewhere in Meghalaya and was marked to someone in Guwahati which we cannot divulge right now as investigations are on,” a senior police officer said.

The explosives include around 500 detonators, 50 kg of ammonium nitrate, 103 pieces of gelatin rods, over 30 metres of wires and a few packets of pins.

“We arrested all the five occupants of the vehicle and are now interrogating them to get to the kingpin,” the officer said.

According to police, the explosives were possibly for some militant groups to strike terror in Guwahati.

“We are not ruling out the possibility of militant groups’ involvement,” the officer said.