TURA: A former militant of the now disbanded ANVC outfit who went on to supply arms to the banned GNLA and later became a full-fledged member has surrendered to police in East Garo Hills on Friday.
The militant Martin K Sangma (37) surrendered to police at Barikgre Chinabat village of Songsak and handed over a pistol with three live rounds of ammunition.
Originally hailing from Nagaland, Martin became a member of the then A’chik National Volunteers’ Council (ANVC) after coming into contact with former commander Michael who was the nephew of the first ANVC commander-in-chief K K Sangma.
Michael himself hailed from Karbi Anglong region of Assam and joined the ANVC after his uncle and military chief was killed during a police raid on the group’s hideout in Wakabua forests of East Garo Hills in the late 1990s’ just as the outfit had begun to expand their base in the western region of Meghalaya.
Martin was arrested during the peak of the ANVC insurgency and sent to jail under the MPDA Act which had been framed to deal with militants. After his release, he allegedly began supplying arms to insurgent groups including the GNLA leading to a second arrest. He later obtained bail and soon joined the ranks of the GNLA outfit under Sohan D Shira.
He was once also close to Reding T Sangma, current chief of ASAK outfit, having wed into the rebel chief’s family.
A few months back, Martin took sides with GNLA commander Salman who engineered a split in the rank and file of Baichung’s command in Chokpot region.
The splinter group of Salman and Durama parted ways with the GNLA and had planned to establish a new finance command at Nangalbibra when police commandos raided their hideout and killed one of them besides seizing the entire heavy weaponry of the group.
The police raid led to five of the militants giving themselves up to police last week which was followed by Martin’s surrender on Friday.
