From Our Correspondent
TURA: A major extortion racket allegedly involving the breakaway faction of the ANVC was busted and three of their armed cadres shot dead in a police encounter at Dobu in East Garo Hills early Saturday morning.
Following inputs about a major extortion racket on coal laden trucks involving ANVC-B militants at Dobu Chitingbang village of the district, SWAT commandos were dispatched to the area early morning.
According to police, the ANVC-B militants, numbering around 6-8, opened fire on seeing the commandos advance, leading to a gun battle that lasted for several minutes.
In the encounter three militants were shot dead while the rest ran away leaving their deceased comrades and some weapons behind. The identity of the slain ultras was not ascertained till the filing of this report.
From the site of the encounter, police recovered a 9 mm pistol and a 7.65 mm pistol, seven live rounds of 9 mm bullets, three live rounds of 7.65 mm, two live ammo of unknown calibre, three empty cases of 7.65 mm rounds, one empty case of 9 mm round, five empty cases of 7.62 mm AK rifle ammunition, two mobile handsets, five SIM cards, letter pads and documents of ANVC (B).
One of the letters with the official seal and inscription of the ANVC-B mentioned about the formation of the outfit to demand for a separate state for the Garo community while the other was a demand for financial assistance to the tune of 20000 rupees and use of a vehicle.
Both letters had the seal and sign of the ANVC-B action area commander Norrok X Momin.
Police have been on the hunt for the action commander, whose real name is Singbirth Marak, for the last one month after he was found to have led a group of militants into Williamnagar District Jail last month killing two jail officials.
Assistant jailer Neil Warjri and Warder Sarai Singh Thabah were dragged out of their office room while warming themselves next to a stove and shot dead in cold blood by the militants outside the compound of the prison.
The killings resulted in large scale anger against the outfit by the citizens of the State and put pressure on the government to act firmly against armed groups in the State.