From Our Correspondent
TURA: A top militant belonging to the Liberation of Achik Elite Force (LAEF) surrendered to East Garo Hills police on Monday afternoon with arms and ammunition after being on the run for close to a year.
The LAEF militant Artil G Momin alias Pangkam surrendered before Resubelpara Sub-Divisional Police Officer BD Marak and handed over a .32 pistol with six live ammunition, two Chinese hand grenades and two rocket propelled explosives along with documents of the outfit.
The MLA from Resubelpara, Timothy D Shira, apparently played a major role in convincing the militant to return to the main stream.
The surrendered militant belonged to the Joking Momin faction of the LAEF and narrowly escaped from last December’s Gajingpara encounter in Resubelpara town. In that encounter between police and LAEF, Joking Momin and three others were shot dead but the incident ignited allegations of a ‘staged encounter’ after it was revealed that no police personnel sustained bullet injuries despite their claims of a fierce exchange of fire for several minutes. The militants who died in that incident were apparently inside a auto rickshaw.
Ever since the killing of his leader, the militant fled from Garo Hills and took shelter in neighbouring Assam moving from one Garo village to another before eventually giving himself up.
The LAEF was formed by a former police commando Peter Marak who for well over two years continued to elude security forces and created terror in its strongholds of East and West Khasi Hills.