Outfit overtook ASAK for No.2 slot
TURA: The killing of the militant chief of the AMEF outfit, Jack Marak, has given Garo Hills police the much needed breakthrough in its fight against militancy where it is facing heat from as many as four major insurgent groups and several groups of petty criminal gangs engaged in abduction and extortion.
“AMEF outfit was beginning to expand its militant operations in as many as four districts of Garo Hills. When it came to the strength of its armory and the number of cadres, it had already overtaken the ASAK oufit for the number two slot” said a senior Meghalaya police officer engaged in counter insurgency operations.
A group of GNLA cadres and leaders led by commander Jack Marak and finance secretary Reding T Sangma parted ways with the GNLA to form the ASAK outfit.
In ASAK, which means A’chik Songa Anpachakgipa Kotok, Jack was in charge of finance while Reding took over the leadership mantle.
Unhappy with the set up Jack walked out of ASAK with a group of cadres and went on to form the AMEF outfit.
Since the formation of AMEF over a year ago, the group has been behind a string of militant incidents in the Garo Hills region.
It was involved in several abduction and extortion cases and was behind the cold blooded murder of a villager in North Garo Hills over two months ago.
Following the death of a senior cadre in an encounter with police AMEF militants accused the villager of collaborating with authorities and hacked him to death.
The group also set up base in the West Khasi Hills region, bordering East Garo Hills, and two weeks ago abducted a manager of the road construction firm (BSC JV) engaged in the highway construction connecting Garo Hills towards Nongstoin in Khasi Hills region.
The manager was based at Swagre camp of the construction firm in Shallang and was inspecting the project work when he was whisked away.
Initially demanding a crore of rupees for his release, the militants scaled it down to between Rs 10-20 lakh last week.
Police sources revealed that some amount may have changed hands since the victim was reportedly released unharmed on Friday.
With the regular flow of money obtained through kidnappings and extortion, the AMEF outfit was gradually expanding its base by procuring more weapons and recruitment of new cadres.
Police intelligence indicates that most recently the first batch of 40 new cadres passed out from a jungle training camp of the AMEF.
The death of its leader Jack Marak is expected to weaken the AMEF outfit considerably, but the worrying factor is the secrecy surrounding the next line of militant leadership of the group.
Police are clueless about who will be donning leadership mantle now that Jack Marak is no more.
One of the senior most cadres who held the rank of deputy army chief, and went by the name of Goran, deserted the group with his followers to form a new organization known as LAMA which is now believed to be operating in the Ampati-Salmanpara region.