Shillong, June 23 : Meghalaya police are yet to make much headway in the interrogation of the three suspected arms smugglers arrested along with eight AK-56 rifles at Lad Umroi in the state’s Ri Bhoi district on Saturday.
While Meghalaya police contemplate “a different strategy” to make the trio open up, Manipur, Mizoram and Assam have also expressed desire to interrogate the arrested men — Lalchawsanga Zahau, C.L. Hliva and Lallawmzuala.
The NIA and SIB, too, have started interrogating the trio, as Meghalaya police are still clueless about the source and destination of the seized AK-56 rifles.
Meghalaya’s officiating director-general of police B. Kezo said though the trio had claimed to be from Mizoram, the truth was yet to be ascertained, as they might actually be from Myanmar, which shared a porous border with Mizoram.
“We want to know who they really are, their role in smuggling the arms and the details about the source and destination of the weapons,” Kezo said.
He said the arrested trio had not revealed anything except the fact that a person, Raju, was supposed to collect the weapons from Mawlasnai on the Meghalaya-Karbi Anglong (Assam) border.
According to the arrested gunrunners, the cost of an AK-56 rifle was Rs 2.5 lakh.
“They are tight-lipped, and it appears that they do not want to say more, as they fear that once something important is revealed, their lives will be in danger,” he said, adding, “To unearth more information, we need to look at a different strategy.”
Kezo said it was suspected that there might have been several instances in the past when Meghalaya was used as a transit route by arms smugglers, and added that the vehicle used to carry the seized weapons was specially modified to conceal them and hoodwink the police.
“Meghalaya has highways connecting the state with Manipur, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura and hence, it has emerged as a safe transit route for arms smugglers,” Kezo said.
He added that constant vigil was needed to detect the arms being smuggled through Meghalaya.