Police swoop down on militants’ hideout
TURA: A small time ginger trader from neighbouring Assam, who was kidnapped by GNLA militants in East Garo Hills, has reportedly been executed by his captors during a fire fight with police commandos who raided their hideout in Songsak region.
The over 50-year-old victim, Kali Biswas of Krishnai town in Assam, was heading back from Songsak in East Garo Hills on January 4 afternoon in a public vehicle when he was kidnapped at gunpoint by GNLA militants from Nangapa, between Dagal and Songsak.
On Tuesday morning, while police were raiding the hideout of the GNLA deputy area commander of East Garo Hills identified as Pangkam there was a fierce gun battle between the two sides inside the dense forests near Songsak.
After the militants fled the attack, police conducted a search of the area and came across the body of Kali Biswas a little distance away from the militants’ hideout. He had been executed with a single bullet to the head.
“Following the Williamnagar IED blast we had launched a mammoth operation throughout East Garo Hills to flush out the militants. It was during one such operation in Songsak region that we came across a makeshift camp of the GNLA during which there was an exchange of fire,” said East Garo Hills district police chief Davis Nestell R Marak to The Shillong Times.
He added that the militants instead of releasing their victim executed him in cold blood before fleeing from the encounter site. One of the militant collaborators who led police to the hideout following his arrest the previous night also sustained a bullet injury on his leg.
On Monday night, police had intercepted two villagers who were arranging food from a nearby village for the militants and following their lead an operation was launched the same night which culminated in the morning encounter.
The GNLA militants had demanded a sum of five lakh rupees from the family of ginger trader Kali Biswas. The family of five had expressed their inability to pay such a huge sum and pleaded with the militants to release their sole bread earner who earned for the family purchasing ginger from different villages and selling them at the weekly markets.
The militants later scaled down the amount to Rs 1.50 lakh and insisted that the family pay the ransom for his safe release.