From Our Correspondent
TURA: Suspected GNLA militants shot dead a villager elder in Koksi Nengsat village of Songsak in East Garo Hills on Friday night.
The 50-year-old family man, Simon Ch Marak, had just returned home from a fishing trip nearby when as many as five armed militants came to his house and called him out.
After a brief conversation the militants opened a hail of fire from a close range killing him on the spot. Before shooting the elder the militants accused him of being a police collaborator despite the victim’s strong denials.
Police were informed about the killing on Saturday morning and a team that visited the site to retrieve the body recovered as many as 15 empty shells of AK ammunition and four empty cartridges of a 7.65 pistol. The militants also left behind a live AK bullet at the spot.
The militants are believed to have targeted the village elder over the loss of three cadres at the hands of security forces four months ago.
In the early morning hours of April 13th, this year, Meghalaya police commandos together with CoBRA units of CRPF raided a GNLA hideout at Koksi Nengsat in which ten militants led by their area commander Ajan Marak alias Jimmy were holed up.
In the gun battle two cadres, Nangrepa of Dalu and Imre of Rongsak, were killed on the spot and four others sustained bullet injuries and managed to escape. One of the injured militants later reportedly died of his injuries and was buried in an unmarked grave.
