TURA: The banned GNLA militant outfit has denied its involvement in Tuesday’s IED blast at Rewak in which two policemen were killed and three others sustained injuries even as a rag tag group of criminals under the name of A’chik National Cooperative Army (ANCA) has projected itself as the perpetrators of the crime.
Police are not buying into the story of the ANCA given its limited potential and past history of kidnappings and extortion to make a quick buck.
“The charge against GNLA of setting up an IED blast at Rewak which slaughtered two policemen and injured three others is not true. Meghalaya police ought to first enhance their insights inputs as opposed to indicating finger at us indiscriminately,” claimed GNLA joint publicity secretary Garo Mandei Ch Marak.
He said that the charge against the outfit was a strategy of the government to increase operations against them.
“We are not hesitant to claim responsibility if this was our handiwork. In any case, this is not our work, therefore we negate this charges,” said the GNLA leader in a statement to the media while not ruling out involvement of deserters from the organization.
Even as the GNLA tries to wash its hands off the incident, the little known ANCA has taken credit for the brutal attack.
A man claiming to be ANVC’s Area Commander of South Garo Hills, Bokbak R Marak called up The Shillong Times’ Office on Wednesday and staked claim for the attack terming it retaliation for harassment of family members of its cadres.
“We carried out the attack as police, unable to get their hands on us have been targeting our families. We want them to know that we have enough fire power to strike back whenever we want,” the militant leader who claimed to be an original resident of Jadigittim in South Garo Hills said.
However, Meghalaya police has cast aside the claims of this little known group which operates primarily in the Assam-Meghalaya border region for extortions and kidnappings.
“They (ANCA) saw this incident as an opportunity to put themselves in the limelight and expand their criminal activities knowing that the GNLA was unlikely to come forward and stake claim for the attack,” said senior police officials.
In the meantime, police intelligence has identified three members of the GNLA who allegedly took part in the attack.
GNLA cadres Geloram, Mangsang and Sanja are among several others who stand accused of taking part in the ambush on the police convoy.
There is apprehension that more of such attacks could be in the pipeline of the GNLA to target security forces in the Garo Hills given that intelligence reports have indicated transfer of IEDs from Sohan Shira’s base camp to various commands of the group.
“Sohan with the help of ULFA has trained and issued some IEDs to senior cadres like Hedio, Jimmy, Philiport and others to target security forces,” informed Meghalaya police.