From Our Correspondent
TURA: East Garo Hills police shot dead two militants and reportedly injured four others in a major gun battle at village Koksi Nengsat of Songsak region during the early morning hours of Saturday in which explosive detonators and weapons were recovered.
The incident took place at around 6 am when SWAT and CoBRA commandos undertook a cordon and search operation in the village following intelligence reports of militant movement.
A group of ten heavily armed GNLA militants led by East Garo Hills area commander Ajan Marak alias Jimmy was leading his group into the village for a morning meal when they were intercepted by the police teams leading to a heavy exchange of fire in which two militants were shot dead while several others sustained bullet injuries but managed to escape.
The area commander, a close confidante of GNLA military chief Sohan D Shira, along with his deputy identified as one Marcus was also present during the encounter but managed to escape without injuries.
However, police claim that as many as four other cadres identified as Lando, Jarek, Bikram and Target, sustained bullet injuries but were escorted away by their comrades during the gun battle.
“One of the militants identified as Target sustained serious injuries and may have died. We are conducting a search of the
entire area,” informed East Garo Hills SP JFK Marak.
The bodies of two militants recovered from the encounter site contained GNLA identity cards which revealed their names as Nangrepa and Imre. While Nangrepa hailed from Dalu in West Garo Hills, Imre was from Rongsak village of East Garo Hills.
The encounter also provided a major catch for security forces with an assortment of weapons seized from the site of the firing incident.
As many as fifty detonators and four gelatin sticks along with safety fuse wires meant for explosions together with an AK-56 rifle with three magazines containing ninety rounds of live ammunition and a 7.65mm pistol with six live rounds in a magazine were recovered from the encounter site.
Three wireless communication sets were also retrieved from the place of incident along with mobile phones and incriminating documents.
This is the second major incident involving GNLA militants in the district in the last six months. In September last year, SWAT commandos made a daring attack on the camp of GNLA commander-in-chief Sohan D Shira in the Durama Hills, across the Simsang river not far from the district headquarters Williamnagar. In that attack Sohan managed to escape but a senior cadre identified as Tosol Marak was shot dead and a huge number of armaments including RPGs were recovered from the camp site.