India: Security forces on Saturday arrested a six-member gang of poachers and illegal wildlife traders from central Assam's Nagaon district, officials said. They also recovered a rhino horn from the gang.

Based on intelligence input provided by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, a Nagaon police team led by DSP Samiran Baishya had launched an operation at by-pass road near Nagaon town and arrested the accused from a roadside eatery.

Police also seized a rhino horn weighing around a kilogram, two motor cycles, mobile handsets, and drugs in possession of the accused.

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 alleged that two poachers, Arun Saikia and Ranjan Jyoti Saikia, hailed from Upper Assam's Jorhat district and had carried the rhino horn for selling it to the other arrested persons. "Arun and Ranjan has tried to sell the horn but we had managed to intercept it and caught them," the top Assam cop said.

Assam has lost over 250 one-horned rhino in the state in the past decade to poaching.

(Source: India blooms)