SHILLONG: The concluding year of 2013 witnessed continuous strengthening of the banned outfit GNLA who created a reign of terror in Garo Hills by continuing its illegal activities of killing, abduction and extortion.
The banned outfit first started creating law and order problems in February when GNLA militants disrupted a political rally in East Garo Hills and targeted Jonathan Sangma, an Independent candidate contesting from Williamnagar in East Garo Hills, during a public meeting held at at Dawa Songgital, 10 km from Williamnagar. The militants also fired shots in the adjacent forest area, aimed at creating fear among his supporters.
Barely two days after the incident, GNLA militants once again entered the Williamnagar jail premises and shot dead an assistant jailor and seriously injured a warder after dragging them out of the office. The assistant jailor identified as Neil Warjri was killed and warder Sarai Singh Thabah was seriously wounded in the incident.
In the same month of February, GNLA militants shot dead a Nokma of Daribokgre identified as Spinder Areng near Nokrek Biosphere Reserve bordering East and West Garo Hills suspecting him to be a police informer.
Later, in the month of March, a major extortion racket allegedly involving the breakaway faction of the ANVC was busted and three of their armed cadres were shot dead in a police encounter at Dobu in East Garo Hills.
In March the ANVC ambushed newly-elected MLA of Rongara-Siju, Rophul S Marak, on NH-62 near Dainadubi while the legislator was returning to Tura from Shillong and was passing through Rongmil village near Dainadubi on NH-62 . There was an exchange of fire between the two security personnel assigned to the legislator and the militants for some time, before the three militants fled the scene.
In April, East Garo Hills police shot dead two GNLA militants and reportedly injured four others in a major gun battle at village Koksi Nengsat of Songsak region in which explosive detonators and weapons were recovered. As many as fifty detonators and four gelatin sticks along with safety fuse wires meant for explosions together with an AK-56 rifle and three magazines containing ninety rounds of live ammunition and a 7.65mm pistol with six live rounds in a magazine were recovered from the encounter site.
The GNLA militants meanwhile continued their extortion drive and threatened to shoot Congress legislator from Raksamgre, West Garo Hills, Limison Sangma, if he failed to pay Rs 5 lakh on May 18.
Apart from the extortion drive, the militants did not spare even the poorer section of people when five innocent and unarmed coal labourers were reportedly shot dead by armed militants in retaliation for the quarry owner’s failure to pay up on time. This happened in Nangalbibra region of South Garo Hills. The primary suspect in the incident was the newly formed United Achik Liberation Army (UALA) headed by one Norrok X Momin.
In June a Shillong bound Meghalaya Transport Corporation (MTC) bus was also torched by suspected armed GNLA cadres in North Garo Hills. The ultras gave just four minutes for the passengers, mostly students, to come out of the vehicle and later set it ablaze.
In the spate of violent incidents, eight labourers were killed in cold blood inside their coal quarries in Nangalbibra region by a gang of miscreants in June and dacoits were suspected to be behind the incident The attacks were carried out in three coal quarries in Garegittim-Dobakkol region, 5km from Nangalbibra and 51km from Baghmara, the district headquarter.
And as security forces intensified their operations against the militants the proscribed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) threatened to launch a ‘street war’ against security forces if the Government continued its anti-insurgency operation by bringing in more forces to Garo Hills.
Apart from poor labourers, pastors and preachers were also threatened and killed in Garo Hills. The assistant pastor of a church was abducted and shot dead in Rari area of North Garo Hills District.
The assistant pastor was identified as Previlson G Momin (50) of Ronggopgre Baptist Church, 5km from Rari .
As security forces intensified operations a major consignment of arms destined for GNLA’s Sohan D Shira was seized by East Garo Hills police team at Chinabat in July after they intercepted a vehicle coming from Assam and heading towards Williamnagar. The consignment included AK rifles and a under barrel grenade launcher (UBGL) that was clandestinely brought from Dimapur.
A day after the seizure, the second in command of the GNLA’s central command was shot dead in an encounter with East Garo Hills police at Bansamgre village on the way from Tura to Williamnagar. Meghalaya Police’s SWAT commandos with CoBRA personnel of CRPF pinned down the central command area commander Azan Marak alias Jimmy of Bolkingre along with a nine-member armed group atop a hill overlooking Bansamgre village.
Meanwhile, BSF also made it clear that the GNLA, which in the past few years has emerged as a major perpetrator of insurgent activities in the State is working in tandem with the Assam-based ULFA.
Despite the counter insurgency operations, there was no let up in the violent incidents as in the month of August suspected GNLA militants triggered a powerful claymore IED blast at Nengkhra in East Garo Hills narrowly missing a vehicle carrying six Meghalaya cops. They survived the attack.
As Garo Hills was reeling from terror, street justice was meted out on a group of militants who tried to extort money from villagers in the Assam side of the border adjoining Garo Hills as angry mobs lynched two of the suspects while another two were apprehended and handed over to Assam Police. It was reported that as many as seven suspected ANVC-B militants had descended on Do’rengtip village of Kachirapara in Agia area of Goalpara district, Assam, at around 8:15 AM. Brandishing pistols the militants caught hold of a villager near a cowshed and demanded money from him. Seeing the situation a mob descended and accosted the militants who opened blank fire to scare away the villagers. As the militants tried to escape two of them were caught by the public and bludgeoned to death.
Meanwhile, suspected GNLA militants in the same month went on a major criminal offence by executing a villager in front of his family in Ruga area and lobbing a grenade at Jadigittim market in South Garo Hills. The family was targeted on suspicion that they were police collaborators.
By the time it was also very clear that Williamnagar was bearing the brunt of GNLA menace as several officers, poor people and residents were slapped with extortion demands by the banned outfit.
Despite all the atrocities by the militants, counter insurgency continued and general headquarters of the banned Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) operating deep inside the jungles of Durama Hills in East Garo Hills was busted by security forces and one militant reportedly was shot dead by the police.
Later, in September Assam Police also seized a huge consignment of arms and ammunition meant for the outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), from a truck at Khetri near Guwahati and subsequently arrested two persons including a GNLA cadre.
However, the militant group was not deterred by the seizure and in November six persons were killed and seven others seriously injured when militants opened fire on a group of people gambling on the occasion of Diwali in Assam’s Goalpara district .
The armed insurgents swooped on the group of gamblers at remote Gendamari in Aagia police station and randomly fired on them from automatic weapons
In the same month, a special unit of the GNLA specifically dispatched to Tura for subversive activities was intercepted and caught on the outskirts of the town leading to the arrest of three cadres along with sophisticated arms.
Then came the biggest attacks of GNLA on the cops. Garo Hills police suffered one of its biggest casualties in its fight against militancy with five state security personnel losing their lives in an ambush laid by a heavily armed group of militants from the banned GNLA outfit in remote South Garo Hills. Armed GNLA militants numbering over two dozen ambushed a police gypsy with five occupants that was proceeding from Baghmara to Tura in West Garo Hills.
While the GNLA was spearheading its violent activities in Garo Hills, Suspected ANVC-B militants entered from the porous Bangladesh border and shot dead two BSF constables and snatched away their INSAS rifles near Kaithakona outpost in South West Garo Hills District.
In November over a dozen suspected militants barged into a village market near Tikrikilla in West Garo Hills district and forcibly abducted three non-tribal traders at gunpoint.
While GNLA and ANVC-B were running amok in Garo Hills, seven ANVC cadres 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).
In the same month,the State police commandos shot dead the area commander of GNLA for Ampati region near Garobadha in West Garo Hills while another police team in remote South Garo Hills district was engaged in a gun battle with cadres of the same outfit on Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, a Meghalaya Sericulture officer who was kidnapped by Rabha militants in neighbouring Dudhnoi area of Assam was rescued unharmed by Assam police after a gun battle in which three militants and a collaborator were killed. The extension officer of the sericulture department, Dilip Dutta Medhi, posted at Resubelpara in North Garo Hills district, was kidnapped from Chotomatia village by Rabha militants while he was travelling towards Dudhnoi on November 16.
The GNLA later suffered a major blow when its general secretary whose identity had remained a secret for long was finally revealed with the arrest of a government school teacher in Williamnagar. 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.
The newly-formed militant outfit UALA also started flexing its muscle power in Garo Hills by the end of November when three militants of the Norrok X Momin-led United A’chik Liberation Army (UALA) outfit were shot dead and another was captured alive after Williamnagar police attacked their camp at Chiokgre village. The dreaded UALA militant chief Singbirth Marak alias Norrok was also present in the camp which housed fifteen cadres but managed to escape with the rest of the group during the encounter.
The GNLA suffered another blow in December, this time in Ri Bhoi district when Ri Bhoi Police arrested five persons including a former Nagaland police official who was helping the Garo Hills based outfit in procuring arms and ammunition.
Police also seized six wireless sets from the site which were meant for delivery to the GNLA. According to reports, the China-made TYT TH-F8 wireless sets were smuggled from Myanmar. The consignment was meant for delivery to Rakkam D Shira, the self-styled finance secretary of GNLA.
Though Christmas was approaching, there was no relief for the people of Garo Hills. While police commandos continued operations and busted the general headquarters of the GNLA in East Garo Hills forests in neighbouring South Garo Hills district another elite police unit was in hot pursuit of the ‘action group’ cadres who have smuggled in powerful explosives with remote detonators from neighbouring Bangladesh on the same day.
Again, Tura police arrested two extortionists who were posing as GNLA members and extorting money from traders of the town, while in nearby Jengjal area four members of a new outfit were taken into custody for serving demand notes and collecting illegal funds. Security forces arrested four members of the newly-formed A’chik Youth Liberation Front (AYLF) from Jengjal, 30 kms from Tura, and located on the main national highway to Guwahati
A day after the GNLA headquarter was busted, militants attacked and destroyed a police radio communication centre, opened automatic fire at a petrol station on the outskirts of Tura critically injuring two employees and ambushed a police team in South Garo Hills injuring a commando
Just a day before the festive season of Christmas, GNLA militants struck once again and abducted two suspected members of newly-formed A’chik Tigers Force (ATF) killing one and leaving the other severely injured with a bullet wound in two separate incidents in East Garo Hills district , The eight-member group of the GNLA’s so called ‘Special Action Group’ led by area commander Jimmy descended on Napak Apal village of Songsak in search of the ATF cadres just before dawn broke December 23.
