Guwahati, March 10 :    Guwahati, March 10:  Six members of the Pakistan-backed militant outfit, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, surrendered before Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta here today. This is the first instance of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen militants laying down arms in the state. Political observers said the ruling Asom Gana Parishad has gained good mileage ahead of the Assembly polls with today's surrender of the six 'foreign' rebels. Welcoming the rebels back into the mainstream, Mahanta said other 'misguided youths' of the state would also realise the futility of insurgency and shun the path of violence. The militants gave up two AK series rifles, a .303 rifle and a pistol to the chief minister at a brief function held at the Circuit House. The six militants belonged to the first batch of 30 recruits from Goalpara and Dhubri districts who were given arms training by the ISI at Batracchi in Pakistan. Giving details of the the modus operandi of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen's recruitment drive in Assam, inspector-general (special branch) Khagen Sharma said the recruits were first taken to Dhaka and then flown to Karachi in Pakistan. From Karachi they were taken to Islamabad and then to Batracchi. Recruitment of Muslim youths in the state came to light when the Assam police arrested four ISI agents in Guwahati on August 10, 1999. On the basis of their confessions, the police arrested 34 Harkat-ul-Mujahideen militants from different parts of the state. Additional director-general of police G.M. Srivastava said nearly 60 Harkat-ul-Mujahideen militants - recruited in Assam - are still at large. The most wanted among them was Maulana Fakhruddin, alias Akram Master, of Barpeta, he added. Mahanta had told the state Assembly last year that Harkat-ul-Mujahideen recruits from Assam were deployed by the outfit against Indian troops in the Kargil war. The state government had formed an action group headed by the director-general of police to check the growing activities of the outfit and the ISI. The six militants who surrendered today are Tajrul Islam, Sahabul Ali, Saukat Ali, Moinul Haque, Salauddin Ahmed and Alauddin Ahmed. After taking the oath of allegiance to the Constitution, Saukat Ali said he was recruited as a member of the outfit by Akram Master when he was a student of Class XII. 'We were lured by Akram Master to join the outfit and undergo training at Batracchi in Pakistan so that we can fight for our community. We always dreamt of an end to the exploitation of our community,' Saukat said.