TURA: Unidentified persons speeding on a two wheeler lobbed a Chinese hand grenade on the Araimile police beat house in Tura on Saturday evening but there were no casualty as the device failed to explode.
The daring attack comes at a time when there is supposedly a high alert by security forces against Garo militants in the backdrop of the murder of a 35-year-old mother of four young children by suspected GNLA militants at Chokpot.
The grenade attack took place at around 7:30 in the evening as traffic was scaling down and darkness had fallen. The pillion rider on a motorcycle coming from the Nehru park direction into Tura town tossed a device while the two wheeler passed by the Araimile beat house located next to Walma petrol station.
The device landed on the roof of the beat house and rolled down to the ground but fortunately did not explode.
While the motorcycle sped off in the direction of Araimile, the sentry on duty at the station ducked for cover.
“At that time of the incident only the sentry was present in beat house as the officer in-charge along with CRPF team had gone on an enquiry towards Nehru park,” claimed district SP Mukesh Kr Singh.
The area was cordoned off and the bomb disposal unit was dispatched to remove the live explosive to a safe location for detonation.
While the prime suspect for the attack lies on Garo militants, particularly the GNLA, critics have not ruled out the involvement of the police either.
Less than two years ago, in December 2012, a youth lobbed a grenade at a television shop in Tura main market which did not explode. Later, it was found that the device was a very old explosive that no longer worked. Critics accused Tura police of staging the incident to create a sense of fear and the then and present district police chief, Mukesh Kr Singh, was blamed for the incident.
Garo militants attacked by mob: Meanwhile, two suspected GNLA militants out on a mission to serve demand notes experienced public anger resulting in their hospitalization in South Garo Hills on Saturday evening.
The two unidentified militants were serving demand notes to villagers residing in Jaksongram village, 15 kms from Baghmara, when locals mustered up courage to accost them at around 5 O’clock in the evening.
The villagers surrounded the two extortionists and despite threats of intimidation attacked the duo. They rained blows on the two extortionists bringing them to their knees. The two suspects were handed over to Baghmara police who admitted them to a hospital in view of their injuries incurred at the hands of the public.
Some of the seized demand notes of the GNLA which quoted figures ranging from five and ten lakhs of rupees were handed over to the police by the public.