From Our Correspondent
TURA: In a daring night attack suspected GNLA militants opened fire on a team of SWAT commandos of the state police leading to a brief firefight at Baija locality on the outskirts of Williamnagar town shortly after 9 pm on Monday.
A team of SWAT commandos were returning to Williamnagar from 1st MLP battalion in Mawiong, Shillong after undergoing training when the incident occurred.
Two vehicles containing SWAT commandos — a mini truck and a Maruti gypsy — had barely crossed the wooden bridge and were approaching the forest beat office area at Rongreng Baija when shots rang out from the jungle area on the left side of the road 2 kms from proper Williamnagar.
Several bullets hit the second vehicle, a gypsy, shattering the windshield and two bullets ricocheted through the speeding vehicle’s front bonnet. However, there were no injuries on the commandos who immediately jumped out from the running vehicle to take on the militants.
The group of four commandos returned fire from the direction the first shots were fired forcing the militants to flee into the darkness. The commandos decided not to give hot chase due to the darkness and more so since the area is densely populated with houses and didn’t want any civilian to get caught in the crossfire.
No one was injured in the incident.
Later, reinforcements arrived from Williamnagar town to secure the area.
A thorough inspection of the site revealed that a small group of militants was trying to head towards the nearby Simsang river for crossing into the Durama hills range when they suddenly came across the two police vehicles approaching from the other direction forcing them to open fire and abandon their plan.
It is a known fact that the entire area on the west bank of Simsang that connects the Durama hills is a
stronghold of the GNLA outfit. The GNLA Commander-in-chief Sohan D Shira hails from the area as also are some of the top ranked leaders of the group.