From Ground Zero
TURA: A slice of smoked pork perched over the embers from a log in the kitchen, an unwashed steel dinner plate with remains of the previous night’s meal and clothes strewn across the compound was all that remained to prove people had resided inside the ANVC-B camp at Daren Agal village that was hit by police commandos on Saturday night which resulted in the death of four cadres.
The camp, barely ten meters inside and overlooking the main road below, gave one a wide view of the nearby surroundings. One could scan the entire area for miles and also keep tab on commuters passing through the road.
Apart from the scenic view of the area from which one could see all the way towards Tura town, the militant camp of the ANVC-B did not have any proper military style structures.
A visit to the camp on Sunday morning, 12 hours after the firing incident, revealed a two-part bamboo dwelling with the main kitchen in front and two small rooms behind to house cadres for the night. The sleeping area of each room had enough space to allow just two individuals to lie down.
Interestingly, the ‘camp’ was derived of any permanent sentry posts apart from three small cleared areas uphill for training purposes.
“We kept away from any contact with those at the camp and preferred to use a longer jungle path to move to the main road instead of passing through their (ANVC-B) area,” revealed an elderly woman who had constructed her house in the same locality.
Blood spots on the trail leading to the training field above the camp and located next to a tree was still visible indicating that the cadres may have perhaps fallen at that spot during the gun battle.
Outside the kitchen heaps of cooked rice was strewn on the drain and the washing area indicating that the inmates of the camp may have been preparing for dinner when the raid took place.
Washed clothes left to dry out in the open was still visible on Sunday morning when the police teams began dismantling the ANVC-B settlement even as the leaders of the group have cried foul and accuse police of killing their ‘unarmed’ cadres in a ‘fake’ encounter.