From Our Correspondent
TURA: Dispelling all claims about his arrest at the hands of Bangladeshi security agencies, the “chairman” of the Garo National Liberation Army, Champion R Sangma alias Pakchara, has announced that he remains a free man and accused the State police, in tandem with Central agencies, of making deliberate attempt to feed false information on him.
The militant chief called up The Shillong Times office on Thursday to deny his arrest and accused the State police of trying to divert attention over its recent blunder in which they shot dead two of their own men while looking for GNLA militants at Dorengkigre area, 12 kms from Williamnagar, on July 2.
“My arrest inside Bangladesh is completely misleading and a total bankruptcy of intelligence. Police intelligence branch should be branded ignorant branch for such poor network of information,” lashed out an angry GNLA Chairman.
He accused senior IPS officers based in Shillong of trying to spread the arrest story to cover up their blunder in planning which led to the death of two commandos during anti-militancy operations near Williamnagar.
He also lashed out at Home Minister HDR Lyngdoh for jumping to conclusions with the police version. “The Home Minister was jubilant with the news of my arrest in Bangladesh. My statement clearly proves otherwise. It is a case of one having his foot in the mouth,” remarked the GNLA leader clearing taking pot shots on the police department.
On a question as to why the outfit is hesitant to talk to the government he said it is too premature at the moment.
Meanwhile, previous intelligence reports about the GNLA chief visiting Tura during the early part of this year may perhaps prove to have been true.
The GNLA leader blurted out about his visit to the town between the month of March and April even though the question was not put through to him. “If police intel is so good then how come they could not catch me when I was in Tura for two days between March and April?” claimed Champion Sangma.
It may be mentioned that central intelligence agencies stumbled on a piece of information about the visit by the militant chief and also prodded on the matter without much success.
The statement by the GNLA leader has once and for all closed the chapter about his detention at the hands of the security forces in neighbouring Bangladesh.