Killings, abductions dent Garo Hills peace
TURA: Two separate incidents involving the murder of three villagers and the kidnapping of two others have dented the festivity ahead of the upcoming Christmas celebrations in the five districts of Garo Hills in the last two days.
Coming close on the heels of the murder of an innocent village elder of Oragitok village by suspected GNLA militants on Friday morning, another two villagers have been executed in cold blood in Samanda village by the armed rebels and two others abducted at gunpoint from the districts of West and South Garo Hills in the last 24 hours.
Suspected militants from the banned GNLA raided Samanda Megapgre village, 18 kms from Williamnagar town and took away at gunpoint Dilseng N Sangma (28) and Liping D Sangma (27) on Thursday night.
Their bullet riddled bodies were recovered on Saturday morning from Patrang Samanda reserve forest by villagers and police. Both had sustained multiple bullet injuries from close range.
Their killing comes less than a day after the cold blooded murder of rice mill owner Onerson A Sangma (50) who was dragged out of his home in Oragitok village on Friday morning and executed by a group of suspected GNLA militants.
The GNLA has branded the victims of Samanda Megapgre village as timber smugglers and the killing of Onerson Sangma as a government collaborator. The state police have denied having any link with the elderly villager. Even as killings rocked the Oragitok and Samanda regions, the GNLA militants have been quick to abduct two other civilians in less than 24 hours from the Garo Hills. Shortly after the murder of Onerson Sangma at Oragitok village, the same group of ultras are reported to have entered Sasatgre/Chandigre village on the foothills of the Nokrek national park and abducted a village elder identified as Balnat Marak. His whereabouts remain unknown. The ripples of the militants’ abduction could be felt as far away as South Garo Hills district where another group of suspected GNLA militants abducted Akhtar Ali, a coal trader from Baghmara town on Friday night.
The unprecedented incidents coming close to the festive season has already cast a spanner on the upcoming celebrations in the rural areas of Garo Hills which have seldom witnessed attacks of such magnitude in the run up to the biggest celebration of the year.