TURA: A twenty-six year old son of the village nokma of Oragitok, under Rongram block, of West Garo Hills has been killed in a police shootout with suspected GNLA militants on Wednesday morning.
The nokma’s son, Sengbath Marak, was reportedly killed when police stormed a house in the village of Romba Adinggre, adjacent to Oragitok, at 5 am to flush out suspected GNLA militants who had reportedly been taking shelter there.
The village is located not far from the main road to Williamnagar and close to the foothills of the Nokrek national Biosphere park.
“We had information from our source that militants were taking shelter in the village. When our boys raided the village the militants opened fire from a house forcing our teams to return fire. In the exchange of fire Sengbath was killed,” said district police chief Mukesh Kr Singh.
According to the police there were four militants along with the Nokma’s son inside the house when it was raided. The ultras managed to escape by opening fire and fleeing into the jungle.
“Sengbath was involved with the armed group because he opened fire on the police team. We have recovered a 7.65 pistol with two live rounds, two magazines, three GNLA demand notes and a detonator from the encounter site,” said the police chief.
The police chief dismissed reports about the deceased being unarmed and not connected to the armed outfit.
“The nokma’s son was part of the group and we have evidence to point to that. We even recovered one GNLA demand note from his possession which is addressed to the Rongram block development officer (BDO),” said the police chief.
