TURA: Monday’s early morning attack on the Norek Bolonggre hideout of the GNLA has scuttled the plans of the outfit to target security forces with its latest firepower – improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The GNLA unit under its action commander in charge of East Garo Hills, Ajan G Momin alias Jimmy, was in the final stages of preparing the IEDs when police commandos attacked their hideout and shot dead one of the cadres and captured another while the leader of the group fled leaving behind his AK rifle and explosives and his girlfriend.
The worry factor for police was the use of remote detonators without the presence of wires which the militants could operate from a distance at the click of a button.
“We had been developing our intelligence inputs about possible IED attacks for quite some time following GNLA chief Sohan D Shira’s threat of retaliation for the destruction of his main camp,” said East Garo Hills Superintendent of Police Davis Nestell R Marak to The Shillong Times. Security forces attacked and destroyed the main headquarters of Sohan D Shira in the Durama Hill range two days after the militant group executed a mother of four children in cold blood in Chokpot accusing her of collaborating with police.
The heavy bombardment of the GNLA camp by security forces using mortars to plummet the hideout totally destroyed the militant headquarters forcing its cadres and leaders to flee for their lives.
Sohan had since sworn to avenge the destruction and directed his commanders, particularly Jimmy, to retaliate in a ‘big way’.
When SWAT commandos attacked Norek Bolonggre hideout of the GNLA, the militants had already assembled the IED devices and were waiting for the arrival of the special Claymore containers to put the devices inside before planting it on the roads.
“There were plastic IEDs, gelatin, a bag full of ball bearings, circuitry including timer devices that were to be used remotely for detonating the devices. In fact, Jimmy’s girlfriend confessed that they were waiting for the Claymore boxes to arrive when we struck,” revealed the SP.
All the IEDs including the remote detonators were ferried into Garo Hills from neighbouring Bangladesh with the active support of the ULFA.
“GNLA commander Jimmy was trained by ULFA in improvising with explosives,” added the police chief. The militant commander hails from Bolkinggre village adjoining Chachatgre village of Sohan Shira.
The attacked on the camp not only yielded the IED components but also included an AK rifle with six magazines and 160 live rounds, a shot gun with eight rounds, a hand grenade, two pistols of 7.65 calibre along with 19 live rounds, 3 wireless handsets, 18 rounds of ammunition of various calibre, seven rounds of .22 pistol along with badges, camouflage dress, holsters, stamp seals and letter pads of GNLA, SIM cards and four Nokia mobile handsets besides four identity cards of the militants.
Two of the ID cards belonged to Jimmy while the others had the photograph and names of Weron Sangma and Bansrak N Marak.