From Our Correspondent
TURA: Manipur and Nagaland are said to be the main centres from where sophisticated arms are being sent to the Garo Hills districts of Meghalaya where a major insurgency upsurge is continuing for the last three years.
Nagaland, home to the oldest insurgency group NSCN, and Manipur, border state having the largest number of militant groups both in the hills and the valley, have become ideal states for shopping by Garo militants, particularly the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA).
The attack on a GNLA camp by Garo Hills police SWAT units near Williamnagar on Friday led to the recovery of a highly sophisticated Heckler and Koch (HK) 5.56mm calibre automatic rifle made in Germany.
The weapon was in the possession of West Khasi Hills area commander Tosol T Sangma who died in the encounter with the police.
The rifle was recovered with a complete set that included a powerful telescope which could be operated during the night as a night vision glass and laser technology for target spotting, informed Garo Hills police.
The GNLA is said to have anything between half to a dozen such foreign weapons in the possession of GNLA commander-in-chief Sohan D Shira who distributes it to the senior most members such as area commanders like Tosol T Sangma.
“Sohan himself keeps one HK automatic rifle with himself for protection day in and day out,” said police sources.
This will be the third time security forces have managed to recover foreign made weapons meant for GNLA.
On June 2 this year, Guwahati police arrested six persons and recovered arms and ammunition meant for Garo militants. The recovery included a powerful AK-74 rifle with four magazines, 25 live shells, one European Berreta Topket pistol with 20 rounds of live ammunitions, 400 live ammunitions of AK-47 rifle, 500 live ammunitions of 9mm pistol. The arrested men revealed that the arms were brought from Tamu area of Manipur.
Again on April, Guwahati police intercepted a vehicle at Gorchuk area and seized an Austrian made X33 Glock automatic rifle meant for the personal use of Sohan D Shira. The four arrested men revealed to police that the weapons originated from Dimapur in Nagaland.