TURA: South Garo Hills police had two close encounters with Garo rebel outfits — GNLA and ASAK — in two separate incidents on Saturday morning leading to the recovery of a pistol, a communication set and other items.
The first encounter took place at approximately 7:15 am during a counter insurgency operation at Dilnegre village of Gasuapara that leads towards Chokpot interior.
Militants taking shelter in the village opened fire on the police team leading to an exchange of fire for close to eight minutes after which the ultras fled into the forests.
Police teams reportedly had to restrain their firing due to the presence of women and children many of whom were out in the compound close to the encounter site.
It was later revealed that a ten-member armed GNLA team was taking shelter when the raid took place. They reportedly had three AK rifles and two INSAS rifles, besides small arms. One of the militants who fled has been identified as Chandra who is in the wanted list of the police. From the encounter site a pistol with six live rounds along with a country-made gun and two mobile phones were recovered.
An hour later another police team scouting the forests of Rongdotchigre village, under Baghmara police station, came across a cadre of the ASAK outfit who had been sent by ASAK militant chief Reding T Sangma to bring some food from the village.
Seeing the police teams, the cadre abandoned his leader’s meal as well as a high frequency communication handset and ran down the slopes of the village and escaped.
Police believe the wanted militant leader was holed up deep in the jungle not far from the village when the encounter with his cadre took place.
Following consistent raids by police teams on the hideouts of the GNLA and other outfits in the Durama Hills, many of the militants have abandoned their once ‘safe’ hideouts inside their camps and moved into hiding in jungles far away to beat the police heat.
The ongoing Hill Storm operation by the Meghalaya police coupled with search operations of villages located in the vicinity of the Durama Hills brought police close to nabbing a group of GNLA militants and the elusive ASAK chief Reding T Sangma on Saturday morning.
