Dhubri, Sept. 26: The army today ambushed and gunned down seven men, claiming they were militants intent on striking in Guwahati. The men were carrying identity cards issued by a Bangladeshi political party.

Hours after the shootout in Assam’s Dhubri district, at a site 250km from Guwahati, a defence press release said wireless intercepts had revealed the plans of the alleged militants, suspected to be from the Bangladesh-based Harkatul Jihadi Islami (Huji).

Army officers said the group carried firearms, ammunition, RDX and detonators, apart from Bangladesh Kalyan Party identity cards, documents of Sonali Bank of Bangladesh and some visiting cards.

The visiting cards belonged to many people in Bangladesh and India, the officers said, while declining to identify them.

Intelligence sources claimed the papers and cards suggested that Huji had penetrated the Bangladeshi political party and was using its name as a cover.

Senior police officers in Dhubri, however, were tightlipped about the operation. “This operation was carried out entirely by the army and at no stage were we involved; so it is better you ask them (the army),” a senior police officer said.

“I cannot comment on the identities of the militants. I have to examine the seizures and the bodies have to be identified before I can say anything.”

The defence release said the alleged militants planned to join another Huji team hiding in Guwahati. Boroibari village, the encounter site, is 30km from the nearest point on the Indo-Bangladesh border that the alleged militants are supposed to have sneaked through.

Col J.S. Sekhawat, commanding officer of 21 Jat Regiment, said there had been information about the movement of militants in the area and army patrols had been keeping a close eye on strangers.

“Yesterday, we received specific information about the movement of a group of armed persons and laid an ambush. As soon as our jawans moved into Boraibari village early this morning, the militants, who were hiding in the forests, hurled a grenade. In retaliatory firing, the seven were killed on the spot.”

According to the army, the encounter lasted 25 minutes and none of the alleged militants were able to escape. Capt. Kuldeep Singh of 21 Jat Regiment, who led the operation, took two bullets but survived, thanks to his bulletproof jacket, the release added.

The seizures, the army said, include four revolvers, two pistols, three grenades, a bomb weighing 400gm, a “pen pistol”, two gelatine sticks, six detonators, 2kg of RDX, an improvised explosive device circuit capable of remote-controlled blasts, acid bottles, 79 live cartridges, 14 spent cartridges, three mobile phones with six Bangladeshi SIM cards, three radio sets and 35 metres of safety wire.

It added that the alleged militants also carried currencies of several countries such as Bangladesh, the US, Japan, Saudi Arabia, China, New Zealand, Pakistan and Switzerland — as well as Bangladeshi bus tickets and the addresses of hotels in various places in Assam.

Col. Sekhawat said the dead men were suspected to be Huji militants because the outfit was known to use the Dhubri border to sneak into Assam before spreading to other parts of the country.

He said investigations into the recent bomb blasts in the country suggested that militants were hiding in areas close to the Bangladesh border and the security forces had been alerted about this.