A huge cache of arms, including 543 anti-personnel mines, was recovered and three arms peddlers were arrested following a joint raid by the Army Intelligence unit of the Eastern Command, the State's Criminal Investigation Department and the Intelligence Bureau here on Thursday. The arms were probably meant to be sold to the Maoist insurgents in West Bengal, though it could have been for other terror groups as well, according to the Army. The arms were suspected to have been sneaked out of the Army Ordnance Factory at Ichhapur in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district over a period of two or three months.
One of the arms peddlers, a Lance Naik with the Indian Army, had been transferred to the Eastern Command from Jammu and Kashmir only three months ago. The two others are civilians. ``The Lance Naik's activities were questionable and the Army had kept an eye on him,'' said Wing Commander R.K. Das, Chief Public Relations Officer, Eastern Command. The recovery of landmines following a raid in his house led the Army and the police to use his leads and raid a house in Behala where the arms were kept hidden in sacks. ``Investigation is on and there is the possibility of a bigger nexus emerging,'' Wing Commander Das said. ``The possibility of an ISI link is also being probed,'' he said.
In what is being claimed by the Army as one of the largest recoveries of mines and other war-like stores from a metropolitan city in recent times, a total of 543 anti-personnel mines, 691 9 mm balls, 340 7.62 mm balls, 58 Pt 303 ammunition and three 5.56 INSAS ammunition were recovered.