From Our Correspondent
TURA: The large-scale deployment of Central and State Police force in the jungles of East and South Garo Hills districts is apparently beginning to choke the activities of GNLA militants with reports flowing in of large-scale movement of the insurgents from their base inside the thick forests.
Counter-insurgency police officials deployed in Garo Hills inform that intelligence inputs are being received of large-scale movement of unidentified persons, presumably GNLA cadres, from the deep jungles of the Durama Hill range and the Balpakram National Park range.
It is believed that the militant group has already begun to dismantle its camps in the face of possible attack by special combat units of the state and central forces. Security forces are in the lookout for the GNLA’s general and central headquarters camps where its “commander-in-chief” Sohan D Shira is believed to be holed up.
Security officials are of the view that the GNLA may try and sneak out of its stronghold in the Garo Hills jungles to safer havens until the heat from the combing operations cool off. The GNLA is believed to have bases in the Durama Hill range and Balpakram National Park. Both places are extreme jungle terrain with no communication network and stretch for well over a hundred kms each.
Police have successfully raided and destroyed a major camp of the GNLA located at Nengmandalgre area of the Durama Hills only recently.
There is apprehension that the GNLA could escape onto neighbouring West Khasi Hills and Assam while at the same time a section of them could be crossing over to Bangladesh.
Taking all these into consideration the authorities have sounded an alert along the border belt and urged upon the border guards to be extra vigilant. It remains to be seen as to how successful the operations will be. Will the security force through its sheer brute force and large-scale number push the GNLA into that of a spent force or will the outfit manage to give the slip only to return more stronger and determined in its pursuit of terror to fulfill its goal.