Guwahati, Aug. 14 -- Just a day before India's 79th Independence Day, security forces recovered a large cache of explosives from Phinbiru village near the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border, averting what officials suspect could have been a major terror plot.

The Assam Rifles launched the operation in the early hours of Wednesday, seizing materials believed to have been stockpiled by ULFA (Independent) and NSCN (KYA) militants for bomb-making and possible attacks during the national celebrations.

The recovery site, barely 7 km from Tipong in Margherita, Tinsukia district, yielded a significant haul: 18 radio sets, 4 radio chargers, 6 electric wires, 1 handmade pistol, 59 detonators, 6 primers, 2 bomb fuses, and 60 rounds of live ammunition....