New Garo outfit suffers a blow
TURA: Heavily armed GNLA militants abducted two suspected members of newly-formed A’chik Tigers Force (ATF) killing one and leaving the other severely injured with a bullet wound in two separate incidents in East Garo Hills district on Monday.
An eight-member group of the GNLA’s so called ‘Special Action Group’ led by area commander Jimmy descended on Napak Apal village of Songsak in search of the ATF cadres just before dawn broke on Monday.
They went to the house of the village Nokma Rakan M Sangma and dragged out his son Lakson N Marak and a friend called Onil Marak of Rongjeng who had come to spend Christmas in the village. Both the victims were accused of being active members of the A’chik Tigers Force (ATF).
The Nokma’s son was executed in the village itself and his friend Onil was taken away by the GNLA cadres.
Onil was brought to Dawagittinggre main road near Nengkhra late Monday afternoon where the GNLA militants shot him from the back and left him to die.
Travelers passing through the road alerted the police about a blood stained body lying on the side of the road.
When the police teams arrived they found the victim severely injured but alive.
He was rushed to Williamnagar civil hospital for treatment and has since been forwarded to Tura for better treatment.
“When our team reached the spot we found he was alive and even able to talk despite a bullet wound on his chest. From the wound we could make out that he was shot from the back. He even confessed to their involvement in the ATF,” revealed district police chief J F K Marak.
The injured victim revealed to police that the Nokma’s son and he were indeed members of the ATF and that GNLA’s action commander Jimmy himself had been present when they were attacked at Napak Apal village.
The new outfit has been in the radar of the GNLA ever since it was formed last month by a group of ANVC cadres who ran away from the main outfit’s liaison office in Tura and formed the ATF. The group was led by ANVC cadre Balsrang.
Police sources reveal that the ATF outfit has served demand notes on businessmen, traders and villagers in theRongjeng region of East Garo Hills in the last few weeks which many believe raised the eyebrows of the GNLA which has a strong presence in the region.
HC notice in account freezing case
The militant leader’s wife, Jimbe R Marak, found her account had been frozen when she failed to withdraw Rs 20,000 that was deposited by herself from the sale of her crops.
She had deposited the money in her account on October 3 at Williamnagar branch of SBI. When she tried to withdraw the money from an ATM in her home village of Hahim in Kamrup district, later this year, she failed.
On a visit to the Williamnagar branch she was informed by the branch manager that her account had been frozen on August 6 this year on the direction of West Garo Hills police chief Mukesh Kr Singh.
When she met the Tura SP about the issue she was informed that her rebel husband was using the account to deposit large sums of money and also the account’s cheque facility.
She decided to move the high court against the police and the bank after she found out that there was no cheque facility issued in her name nor any large transaction taken place from her account.
She filed a writ petition before the court through her lawyer Sujit Dey and the High Court admitted the petition on December 13.
The Meghalaya Home Secretary, district SPs of West Khasi Hills and West Garo Hills and the SBI branch manager of Williamnagar have been made respondents to the writ petition and they have been given four weeks time to file their counter affidavit.
The Court also gave an interim measure directing the SBI Williamnagar branch to allow Jimbe R Marak to operate her account to the extent of withdrawing Rs. 10,000/- per month until further order from the court.TURA: The Meghalaya High Court has directed SBI’s Williamnagar branch to allow GNLA leader Savio R Marak’s wife to operate her bank account which was earlier frozen on the directions of the Tura Superintendent of Police (SP) and simultaneously given four weeks time to the State government and the bank authorities to respond to a writ petition filed by the militant leader’s spouse.