Guwahati, Aug 12 (IANS): Assam Police have recovered ammunition of Chinese origin in Sonitpur district, DGP Gyanendra Pratap Singh said on Monday.

According to officials, these were recovered in a police operation earlier this morning in the Bilasiguri-Batasipur village under the jurisdiction of Dhekiajuli police station in the district.

Singh said that the arms and ammunition were hidden under the earth during the active days of the banned militant group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).

Taking to X, he wrote that five hand grenades of Chinese origin and five hand-made grenades along with a pistol and revolver were recovered. The police also found five detonators buried in the village.

The armed separatist group, National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) was formed with the aim to provide the Bodo people their own independent Bodoland.

The Bodo Security Force, a militant organisation founded in 1986, is where NDFB got its start. The organisation had attacked security personnel and non-Bodo citizens in Assam on multiple occasions. The Santhal, Munda, and Oraon adivasis (tribes), whose ancestors had come to Assam as tea labourers during the British Raj, have been specifically targeted.

Targeting Bangladeshi migrants in what it claims to be the Bodo territory became NDFB's main focus since 2000.

In 2020, the NDFB dissolved itself and signed a peace pact with the government.