After AK-47 and AK-56, militants in Indian state 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 on Wednesday 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 Central Reserve Police Force 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 and 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.