Close shave for outfit’s army chief
From Our correspondent
TURA: East Garo Hills police have once again made a major success in its fight against militancy with special commandos killing a senior Garo National Liberation army (GNLA) deputy area commander Dilseng alias Bashish on the outskirts of Nengm-aldalgre village, 6 kms from Willia-mnagar on Tuesday morning.
The dreaded army chief of GNLA Sohan D Shira who happened to be with the group narrowly escaped as the militants retaliated with a massive firepower to protect their leader.
The chance encounter happened at approximately 11:30am when special SWAT commandos of the district police together with CRPF personnel and COBRA units were scouting the area for movement of militants.
A 30-member heavily armed group of GNLA militants was coming down towards Nengmandalgre village, which is located across the Simsang river, through a jungle path when they suddenly came face to face with the police commandos.
The police opened fire killing deputy area commander of the GNLA’s central command identified as Dilseng alias Bashish. He happened to be a first cousin of former Deputy army chief of GNLA Roster Marak who was killed by SWAT commandos some months ago.
“Sohan was in the group and our men spotted him,” informed police from Williamnagar.
Police sources said commandos engaged in the operation revealed that the militants provided stiff resistance repeatedly firing on the police with assault rifles and thereby giving their leader the chance to escape.
The commandos gave chase to the militants but the ultras managed to melt into the thick jungles surrounding the area.
From the militant killed police recovered an AK-47 rifle with three magazines containing ammunition and one 9 mm pistol along with his GNLA identity card.
One powerful wireless handset identified as ICom was also recovered from the spot.