TURA: The Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) has expressed regret over the death of a 19-year-old girl who was killed in the crossfire that took place between the outfit and some cadres belonging to the ASAK militant outfit at Bolmoram Agalgre village under Songsak in East Garo Hills.
The gun battle between the two sides which began around 6 am on Tuesday also left a cadre from the rival outfit dead and another injured.
Replying to a statement of condemnation issued earlier by the GSU, Songsak Unit the outfit claimed it had refrained and taken the most extreme care not to meddle in the affairs of the village folk adding that the tragic incident was the outcome of ‘some people going and meddling in the affairs of the locals in the outfit’s name’.
“We were keeping vigil to determine who these people were, who were tarnishing our organisation’s image by extorting money and harassing the village folks. We sent a team to get the facts confirmed. However, they started firing at our men forcing them to retaliate and the girl sadly got killed in the crossfire,” the Joint Publicity Secretary of the outfit, Garo Mandei Ch Marak said in a statement.
He went on to claim they had advised the villagers to immediately take the injured girl to the hospital providing necessary expenditure for fast treatment but that they were reluctant to do so until the police arrived on the scene which resulted in her death.
