From Our Correspondent
TURA: Suspected GNLA militants attacked a petrol pump in remote Chokpot region of South Garo Hills in broad daylight on Saturday while another group of unidentified men shot dead one person of Boro Gokul village near Bajengdoba in East Garo Hills on Friday night.
A group of suspected GNLA militants, numbering between four to six, walked up to the Abisa petrol pump at New Chokpot village of South Garo Hills at approximately 9 AM and opened fire hitting one of the pumping machines. No one was hurt in the attack.
The militants fled immediately after the attack and it is suspected that the attack may have been due to non-payment of extortion money to the outfit by the owner of the oil depot.
Interestingly, the place of incident is less than half a km from the Chokpot police station and the State Bank of India branch.
In the other incident, four masked men in black dress barged into the house of one Randith Sangma (38) at Boro Gokul near Mendipather and took him away. The men carried one AK rifle and concealed their face with a black cloth.
The victim was taken about 300 meters from his house and shot dead. He received a bullet injury on his head and died instantly. It is not known who the perpetrators were but suspicion is on the GNLA.
Involvement of other groups are not being ruled out by police given that the GNLA do not hide their identity and always leave behind a note citing the reason for the killing.
Also, the GNLA has suffered reverses in the area after its ‘area commander’ Tengrik alias Rimpu deserted the outfit to form his own group but was arrested near Guwahati while travelling to Shillong on Thursday.
