From Our Correspondent
TURA: One of the senior member of the banned GNLA and a close associate of militant chief Sohan D Shira narrowly escaped a police raid on his hideout at Sasatgre village of Rongram on Monday afternoon.
The newly-appointed GNLA area commander for entire West Garo Hills district, Baichung Momin, was coming from Sasatgre village area of Rongram with two other cadres when SWAT commandos from Tura intercepted them in a dense jungle area leading to a firefight.
“They (GNLA) were coming to Tura to issue demand notes on civilians under their new commander when we intercepted the group at Sasatgre. We narrowly missed getting him (Baichung),” said West Garo Hills SP, Mukesh Kr Singh, to The Shillong Times.
The encounter which took place at noon lasted for approximately twenty minutes, police said.
The militants escaped the attack but left behind a 9 mm pistol with a live ammunition and a cartridge of a shotgun, several GNLA documents, demand notes, stamps and a bagful of splinters meant for making improvised explosive devices.
The GNLA army chief Sohan D Shira had recently reshuffled his senior cadres and leaders and appointed Biachung and Jarek as area commanders for West Garo Hills. Baichung was earlier with the ANVC outfit and hailed from Gitokgre village of East Garo Hills. He was also the area commander for Chokpot and Baghmara.