J&K militants now wield sophisticated AK-90 rifles

After AK-47 and AK-56, militants in Jammu and Kashmir seem to have upgraded themselves to AK-90, a much sleeker and powerful weapon of the assault rifle series.

Official sources said the Quick Action Team of the CRPF along with state police recovered an AK-90 rifle, the first in the state, from a militant hideout in Draman Trag belt of the Rambhan district here last night.

Besides one AK-90 rifle, one AK-57, 150 live ammunitions, four magazines and three high-explosive grenades were found in the hideout.

"It is for the first time that an AK-90 rifle has been recovered from the militants. It shows how the fire power of militants is increasing day by day," sources said.

The CRPF had last year seized 61 AK-47 rifles from the state besides 11 AK-56.

Interestingly, terror groups are slowly increasing their fire power with emphasis on foreign-made guns, especially Chinese.

Records of foreign-made guns seized by Central security agencies show that though terror groups in the country use US-made and Italian arms, the favourite seem to be Chinese now.

Of the 682 arms seized by the CRPF in 2009, 21 are Chinese-made pistols of which 12 are from J&K, three from Naxal-affected states and six from north-east.

In comparison, seizure of Italian and US-made guns totalled only 10 with all them from the north-east. Of the 10 arms seized by the CRPF, five are Italian, three US-made pistols and two US-made rifles.