Shillong, April 27: The East Khasi Hills administration clamped night curfew in the district last night after it received reports or arms being smuggled from across the Bangladesh border.

The district administration issued a statement late last night saying it had information of “arms being smuggled into India from across the border”. Curfew has been clamped from 7 pm to 5 am within 500 metres from the international border.

However, the order has taken the police department by surprise. “We have no reports of any arms smuggling. Maybe, the district administration was referring to the previous arms haul in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh,” said director-general of police L. Sailo, who received the news with surprise and disbelief.

Superintendent of police, East Khasi Hills, A.S. Rynjah, made similar remarks, but admitted that a few sensitive areas like Balat and Dawki have been identified as routes through which militant outfits like Ulfa and the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) ferry arms from across Bangladesh.

The statement added that some persons or a group of persons were trying to smuggle arms with an intention “to foment insurgency in India”. The district administration officials said they have been tipped off by intelligence, based on current findings and do not date back to earlier incidents like the Chittagong Hill Tracts arms haul.

Militant outfits have frequently used areas in and around Dawki, Nongtalang and Shella in the past to smuggle in arms and ammunition from Cox’s Bazar and the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.

Sources said the East Khasi Hills district administration has been working closely with the BSF and intelligence officials posted along the highly porous border that East Khasi Hills shares with Bangladesh.