GNLA suffers a major blow

TURA: The general secretary of the banned GNLA outfit whose identity had remained a secret for long has been finally revealed with the arrest of a government school teacher in Williamnagar on Sunday afternoon.

Police arrested head teacher of Bijasik Chisim Lower Primary School Dalbin N Marak (37 years) after his motorcycle was intercepted at Kusimkolgre forest check gate by a police party.

He was coming from Tura with another civilian on a motorcycle (ML08 A 6650) when a waiting police party caught up with him on the entrance to the town. He hailed from Nikwatgre locality of Tura town.

The general secretary of the outfit whose identity was not even known to other cadres and leaders of the group apart from the inner circle of the GNLA chief has revealed to police that Sohan called him up over phone and appointed him the general secretary.

After his appointment he received the GNLA seals and letter pads which were kept hidden in the home of one Pinku Palley Ch Marak of Sunny Hills, Tura.

Pinku, who was working as a lab technician at Rongsak medical health centre, was picked up from his wife’s government quarter at medical colony Williamnagar on Sunday night.

He was brought to Tura

under armed escort and from his paternal home police recovered a briefcase containing three Indian passports along with letter heads of vice chairman and general secretary along with several other documents including mobile phones.

The arrest of the general secretary is expected to shed light on the political workings of the outfit including their other top hierarchy besides Sohan D Shira.

Some of the top leaders’ identity such as that of the vice chairman and the acting chairman of the group have remained mysterious for a long time.

The arrested general secretary Dalbin Marak also played a major role in planning strikes against security forces and was specifically tasked with translating letters from Garo to English by Sohan Shira.