From Our Correspondent
from the criminal gang. (ST)
TURA: An assortment of weapons including pistols designed to be identical to factory made have been seized in West Garo Hills and two criminal gangs busted by police.
While the first arrests were made of robbers who crossed over from neighbouring villages of Assam on Monday night, the recovery of the weapons took place on Friday morning after another group of locals
was intercepted by police patrol on Wednesday night.
A police patrol party intercepted a gang of five local men who were crossing into Mukdangra village of Garobadha shortly after 9 PM. The gang, armed with two shot guns, a single and double barrel rifle, along with five live cartridges, was caught with the weapons as well as twenty thousand rupees which is suspected to have been extorted from villagers.
Pieces of black clothes meant for concealing their facial identity were also recovered from the five men.
Following interrogation of the five men, a police team returned to the site where the gand had been caught and retrieved a bag containing two pistols with ten live rounds and a Chinese hand grenade. The pistols, despite being country made were well finished products and even had a ‘Made in USA’ tag on them.
The arrested men have been identified as Willipson Ch Marak (25) of Boldamgre village, Silsang B Sangma (23) and Bicky Ch Marak (32) of Chanupara village in Tikrikilla, Rangsil A Sangma (27) of Okkapara and Jubil N Marak (32) of Arbella.
On Monday, police teams on patrol duty in the sensitive Garobadha-Selsella region nabbed a gang of Muslim dacoits who had crossed over from Assam to commit crime in Garo villages. The gang was armed with dao, lathi and rods, and was hiding in a bush at Tangaon tri-junction which connects Selsella, Rajabala and Garobadha, when they were spotted by a police patrol at around 11 PM.
The five criminals have been identified as Razzak Ali (45), Saifur Islam (18) and Mahatsel Islam (25) all hailing from Assam’s Barbela village, Azzizur Islam (19) of Bantenari village and Muku Islam (20) of Karuabada.
The gang is believed to be one among several operating in the area preying on innocent Garo villagers during the night.
“We have got leads from them relating to the recent dacoity and rape at Boldamgre village,” informed district SP Mukesh Kr Singh.
Security has been beefed up after the attack on Boldamgre village near Garobadha by Muslim criminals from Assam on the night of May 4. In that attack criminals looted a villager of his life’s savings, stole a shot gun and also raped a teenager.