TURA: Meghalaya Police is said to have had intelligence reports about a possible attack by GNLA militants just days before the carnage at Kolapara but drew a blank when it came to the site that was going to be targeted.
“We did have credible information that GNLA would be trying to create mayhem but the area of attack was a mystery,” said South Garo Hills district police chief Davis Nestell R Marak.
According to the police chief intelligence inputs had suggested that the GNLA could be targeting remote police outposts or targeting security force personnel except that the target destination had remained a mystery.
One of the possible targets police had anticipated was an attack on Williamnagar police station in East Garo Hills by GNLA to avenge the raid on its chief Sohan D Shira’s home in Chachatgre where several lakhs of rupees was seized and his teenage brother-in-law arrested by police a few weeks ago.
The GNLA militant leader had on the very same day warned of retaliation in a ‘big’ way.
GNLA militants escaped by using military
fatigues, police caps
GNLA militants, who had attacked a passing police vehicle killing five personnel in an ambush at Kolapara area of Kapasipara in South Garo Hills district on Tuesday morning, reportedly escaped unnoticed while laying their trap due to the military uniforms they had put on, it is learnt from police sources.
The large group of over two dozen militants who took part in that ambush could not have gone unnoticed by passers-by and locals except that their camouflage uniforms concealed their true identity.
Highly placed police sources have revealed to The Shillong Times that the movement of the group was noticed by a few villagers as they prepared the groundwork for laying the ambush. The villagers were heading for work at their paddy fields when the group is said to have been spotted.
However, those who reportedly noticed the group had presumed that it was some form of a military exercise or a cordon and search operation by security forces in the area which is common in the militancy affected Garo Hills region.
“The militants were dressed in olive green uniforms and had military boots on. Some of them had even worn beret caps similar to the ones used by police and the military,” said a senior police official.
It is a known fact that police commandos and those from the CRPF’s CoBRA unit commonly use jungle camouflage uniforms during operations and the same is also commonly used by militant outfits in Garo Hills.