Indian police raid terror training camp

NEW DELHI, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- India says its police have raided a terror camp being run jointly by two banned insurgent groups in Meghalaya state.

"The police in Meghalaya in the north eastern region of the country have demolished a joint camp of the banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council and the National Liberation Front of Tripura in Narpuh in a reserved forest along the Cachar-Jaintia Hills on the Indo-Bangladesh border," said a state police spokesman.

The camp, the spokesman said, was raided following the arrest of Pynhunlang Kharbani, an area commander of the HNLC, and one of his accomplices, Robinson Lyngdoh Lyngkhoi from Chiehruphi village.

"The camp sheltering around six HNLC and NLFT cadres was busted after 40 minutes of heavy firing by both sides. The area commander himself led the police to the camp inside the deep forest," Inspector General of Police BL Buam told newsmen in the state capital Shillong

Buam said there were no casualties but the militants fled towards the Indo-Bangladesh border. The senior police official said the Border Security Force and state police are carrying out combing operations in the forest.

The police recovered four AK 56 rifle butts, one VHF set, six micro cassettes and a huge number of 9mm and .22 ammunition from the camp, The Assam Tribune newspaper quoted the police as saying Wednesday. Buam said the two militant groups had set up the camp to intensify the extortion drive in the coal belts of the Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya.