Naxals train to gun down copters

Raipur: A rare video of Maoists showing the rebels conducting 'commando-style' training to gun down Air Force helicopters has been recovered, claims the police in Bastar, which is a huge stronghold of Naxals in the state of Chhattisgarh.

The video of a training camp apparently in the forests of Sukma in south Bastar, which adjoins Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, shows guerrilla cadres practicing with LMGs (light machine guns) to bring down helicopters used to transport security personnel.

The video, believed to be shot recently, shows a dummy of a flying machine, prepared with raw wood, plastic sheets and branches of trees, suspended on a rope tied to trees from two sides.

In the footage, some people are seen swinging off the 'dummy' from one side to another in a descending pattern, imitating how air force helicopters and para-military troops. Armed cadres positioned on the ground are seen firing at the target. Machine guns mounted on tripods made of tree branches were also being used in the training according to the video, said the police.

Huge arms recovered from Bodo militants
Guwahati: Seven terrorists of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songojit faction), suspected to be involved in the December 23 massacre of Adivasis (tribals) in Assam's Kokrajhar, were arrested in a pre-dawn operation jointly carried out by the Indian Army and state police.

The forces also recovered 10 weapons including four AK-47s, one HK-33 German made assault rifle, one M-16 US assault rifle and one INSAS rifle from an arms dump in the Ripu Reserve Forest, North of Kokrajhar. Sources said that mobile check posts were set up after intelligence inputs that some of the Bodo militants will try to sneak in to neighbouring West Bengal.