From Our Correspondent
TURA: A bold move by Garo National liberation Army (GNLA) militants to walk up to a village market at Gokulgre bang on the main national highway 51 on Thursday afternoon and hold up traffic while its members went about putting posters on shops that did not pay ‘tax’ has embarrassed the Meghalaya government to no ends.
The bizarre yet daring action by the militants from the most potent organization in the State has put many questions on the police higher ups which all along believed it had the members of the militant group on the run.
Fifteen militants led by ‘area commander’ Rimpu marched into Gokulgre market, near Bajengdoba, at around 3:30 in the afternoon and fired three rounds in the air to scare the villagers who started running.
One group of militants went to the shop of Manikar Ali and Sunil Lengra and left a poster on it demanding they either pay tax or face death. The shops, two grocery shops and a tea stall, have remained closed since the time the first demand was made and both owners have fled to their home town in Krishnai near Dudhnoi.
Just as this was being done, other militants from the group went on to the main road and stopped traffic from both sides for close to ten minutes sending shock to the commuters who happened to be passing through the area at that time.
It was a twist of fate that no paramilitary or police vehicles happened to be crossing the area at that time otherwise there would have been an all out gun battle in which innocent bystanders could have been hurt.
The militants did not end their adventure over there. They even went in search of a battalion constable to his house in the village and on not finding him threatened his wife that they would execute him.
The police constable was away on duty in South Garo Hills.
Narrow escape for Tripura forest rangers
In another incident, a group of forest rangers from Tripura had a narrow escape when they were accosted by a group of armed GNLA militants dressed in camouflage at Rari village in East Garo Hills on Friday.
Police sources informed that the heavily-armed GNLA cadres, numbering around 17, stopped a bus carrying the forest rangers, mistaking them for policemen. The forest rangers were dressed in khakis.
On entering the bus, the GNLA cadres realized that the occupants were forest rangers from Tripura, the police source said.
After verifying their identity card and other documents, the GNLA cadres allowed the bus to proceed without causing any harm to anyone.