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Guwahati, April 29 : Security forces on Saturday morning had arrested a six-member poacher gang and illegal wildlife trader with a rhino horn from central Assam's Nagaon district, officials said.
Based on intelligence input provided by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, a team of Nagaon police led by DSP Samiran Baishya had launched operation at by-pass road near Nagaon town and arrested the poacher gang and illegal wildlife trader from a roadside dhaba.
Police also seized a rhino horn weighing around a kilogram and two motor cycles, mobile handsets, drugs in possession from them.
The arrested poacher and illegal wildlife trader gang members were identified as Baharul Islam, Jubed Ali, Abdul Matlib, Shahidur Rahman, Arun Saikia and Ranjan Jyoti Saikia.
A top police official said that, two poachers Arun Saikia and Ranjan Jyoti Saikia hailed from Upper Assam's Jorhat district had carried the rhino horn for selling it to the other arrested persons.
"Arun and Ranjan has tried to sell the horn with dealing of an amount of Rs 22 lakh. But we had managed to intercept it and caught them," the top Assam cop said.
Interrogation is going on for further details.
Assam has lost over 250 one horned in the state in past a decade which were poached in different parts of the state.
An official of the state forest department said that, per kilogram horn has sold in international market up to worth of Rs 2-2.5 crore.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
