House owner arrested
From Our Correspondent
TURA: Undaunted by Friday night’s incident in which GNLA militants dumped the body of a villager executed by them close to a police camp, East Garo Hills police went all out against the ultras and managed to force them out of their hideout in Resubelpara sub-division area on Sunday morning.
Based on intelligence reports about the movement of heavily armed GNLA militants led by their area commander Laben alias Chenang, SWAT commandos conducted an overnight operation in Resubelpara area. and located the hideout inside Resu Song Megap.
The militants who were coming out of their hideout which happened to be the house of a sympathizer were shocked to see police commandos heading in their direction. They opened fire from authomatic rifles causing a brief encounter.
The police commandos refrained from going all out to flatten the hideout since it was early morning and the villagers had come out of their homes.
“We had to take up defensive positions instead of going on the assault because we did not want any innocent civilians to get caught up in the cross fire,” said a police officer from Resu. Taking advantage of the police handicap the militants escaped into the jungles behind the village. They did leave behind several incriminating documents that were later seized by the security forces from their hideout. The owner of the house where the militants were taking shelter, Walton Sangma, has been arrested.
From the documents seized police have been able to get sizeable number of information on the activities of the GNLA, it was revealed. The incident comes just a day after another group of GNLA militants tortured to death an unidentified villager in Dobu killing with a blunt weapon and then leaving the body with its hands tied behind close to a police anti dacoity camp. To make their presence felt the militants had opened several rounds of blank fire before escaping.