Action against GNLA militants continues
TURA: The chief of the finance division of the banned GNLA, Rakkam D Shira had a narrow escape when police raided a village school he was holed up in during the early hours of Saturday in South Garo Hills district.
Police teams from Nangalbibra police station launched an operation at Nengsangre village to look for suspected GNLA militants when they came upon the place where the finance secretary of the banned outfit was taking shelter along with his girlfriend and six other armed cadres.
“Our commandos were moving up towards the village school located on a hillock when they were suddenly fired upon by a GNLA sentry,” informed district police chief Anand Mishra.
During the 15-minute-long gun battle the high profile militant leader abandoned his personnel items and fled along with his cadres and a woman whom police claim was his girlfriend.
Besides Rakkam, wanted senior cadres Geloram, Tolang alias Lala and Robi alias Tarzan were spotted during the gun battle.
Personnel items including a kit bag, dairies, mobile handsets and unregistered SIM cards, GNLA seals and demand notes of the finance secretary and one air rifle were recovered from the school room that the militant had been holed up in.
Sniper rifles seized : Meanwhile, a huge quantity of ammunition meant for use in sniper rifles of the banned GNLA have been seized and two arms dealers arrested on Friday night in Baija village, outskirts of Williamnagar.
Williamnagar police raided a house in a secluded corner of Baija, on the road towards Williamnagar town, and picked up two suspected arms dealers identified as Rajiv M Sangma (25) of Rangmal Badim and Malstone N Sangma alias Malket (37) hailing from Upper Chidekgre village.
The arrested duo led police to a hideout where they had stocked as many as 180 live rounds of the 7.62 calibre ammunition used primarily for long range rifles.
On interrogation, the arrested men revealed that the weapons were shipped in from Dimapur town, notorious for its arms smuggling racket, after the GNLA sought its purchase in bulk.
Meghalaya police are not ruling out the possibility of the GNLA having recently procured a substantial number of sniper rifles for its militant army.
Police have, in the recent past, successfully conducted counter-insurgency operations against the GNLA leading to the recovery of a China-made sniper rifle from one of its deserter cadres.