TURA: In one of the biggest blows to the armed rebel outfit GNLA in recent times, East Garo Hills police commandos have shot dead the chief of the banned organization’s so called ‘action group’ during a morning encounter in the jungles of Durama Hills on Thursday morning.
SWAT commandos of the state police exchanged fire with a group of heavily armed GNLA rebels led by the outfit’s ‘action’ commander Kennedy T Sangma alias Hebel in which the militant chief was shot dead.
According to East Garo Hills police chief, Davis Nestell R Marak, SWAT commandos were on a search operation inside the jungles of Durama Hills when they spotted a group of GNLA militants numbering around five ultras near Khakwa Duragre village, 18 km from Williamnagar town and across the Simsang river.
The militants are said to have come out of their makeshift camp and was probably heading for patrolling the area walking in a single file when they spotted the SWAT unit commandos.
“The exchange of fire was intense for around 10-15 minutes during which the GNLA action commander Hebel was killed. We believe many more may have sustained injuries since they abandoned three weapons at the site,” said SP Davis Marak.
The operations team of the State police recovered from the site of the encounter two AK rifles and a powerful Russian made Draganov sniper rifle along with 24 live AK rounds, an empty AK ammo case, 2 live rounds of 7.62 calibre for the sniper rifle and four mobile handsets.
The search operation revealed that there were as many as 10-15 GNLA militants holed up in the makeshift camp which had been separated into two parts.
One part of the camp was where the action commander had set up base and had come out with his cadres for patrolling when they came across the SWAT commandos leading to the firefight.
The body of the wanted militant commander has been retrieved by police and brought to Williamnagar Civil Hospital for post-mortem on the same day.
