New militant outfit formed
TURA: As many as seven ANVC cadres have reportedly fled from their liaison office at Tura youth hostel with a substantial number of weapons to form a new outfit called the A’chik Tigers Force (ATF) blaming the government and the outfit’s leaders for turning a blind eye to their problems.
The cadres reportedly fled under the leadership of Balsrang who happens to be the camp in-charge.
Speaking to The Shillong Times, Balsrang said that seven of them abandoned the outfit on Friday last and decamped with five automatic assault rifles, seven pistols, ten hand grenades and four hundred rounds of ammunition from the armory of the ANVC.
“We have been unhappy with the state of affairs in our organization. The government has not given us our stipend for the last eight months and have abandoned us,” said Balsrang, who has now taken the name of Dilchong Ioimingchi to lead the A’chik Tigers Force.
He also attacked the ANVC leaders for treating its cadres with disdain and blamed the leadership for the present crisis within the outfit.
“The leaders never took care of our welfare in the camp. They never gave us any money. When we wanted to go home to pay a visit to our families we were not allowed. Because of this families have broken up and our wives and children cannot be united with us,” said Balsrang.
He added that after years of patience the cadres decided to part ways with the parent organization.
“We are no longer able to withstand the suffering and felt the only way was to return to the jungle and once again lead an armed struggle,” said the new militant chief.
There is apprehension that more cadres of the group could follow in their footsteps as the new militant chief has revealed that it is wooing other disgruntled members of the ANVC to join their fold.
This will be the third major split within the ANVC since its formation in the mid 1990s. The first split took place in 2009 with its former militant commander Sohan D Shira leaving the group to form his own Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) with a police Dy SP Champion R Sangma.
In 2012 the ANVC suffered another split when its spokesman Rimpu (Bernard) Marak alias Torik Jangning left the group with another militant commander known as Mukosh Marak to form the ANVC-Breakaway (ANVC-B).