SHILLONG: With just .303 rifles at their disposal, forest guards serving in militant-infested Garo Hills region have become a vulnerable group in the wake of spurt in violent incidents in the region.
An official source said that the Forest department had asked the Government to provide armed home guard personnel to help the forest guards, but the Government was ready to provide only unarmed home guard personnel.
The source admitted that the weapons provided to the forest guards by the department are meant only to check poaching and to tackle wild animals and are heavily inadequate to match the fire power of the automatic weapon wielding militants.
Recently, Forest Minister Prestone Tynsong had admitted in the Assembly that the forest guards do not have sophisticated weapons with them.
Earlier, there were cases of militants snatching away the weapons of forest guards in Garo Hills.
In 2011, suspected militants stole seven rifles, including four SBBL guns from the forest department range office in Chidekgre, under Williamnagar, East Garo Hills.
Moreover, the forest officials posted in Garo Hills are also soft targets of the militants and criminals.
During the pre-ceasefire period, ANVC had abducted a forest official D. Satyan who was posted in Balpakram National Park in South Garo Hills, from his official residence at Baghmara on June 18, 2004. He was released on July 2 that year.