TURA: He was called Singbirth N. Marak but preferred to be known as Norok X. Momin.
Norok in Garo means hell. And true to his name, he unleashed terror attacks on innocent civilians and unarmed government officials during his days as the action commander of the A’chik National Volunteers Council-Breakaway faction (ANVC-B) and later as commander-in-chief of the United A’chik Liberation Army (UALA).
On the night of February 2, 2013, the ANVC-B action commander launched an audacious attack on the Williamnagar district jail and burst into the prison premises with a group of rebels. They started firing from automatic rifles.
The prison security, who was taken by surprise, failed to retaliate as the militants targeted two jail officials.
Assistant jailer Neil Warjri and warder Sarai Singh Thabah were shot by the rebels. Warjri was killed on the spot and Thabah succumbed to his injuries a few hours later. The rebels escaped.
Police identified Norok and another ANVC-B militant, Nores Sangma alias Wasa, as the chief architects of the jail attack.
However, the magisterial probe report had remained inconclusive and the magistrate wanted police to further investigate the case.
But prior to the attack, Norok and Wasa were arrested from Rongjeng for targeting a campaign of then working president of the state Congress (MPCC) Deborah Marak in Williamnagar before the February 2013 elections.
Deborah had gone to a village across the Simsang river for a public meeting in November 2012 when Norok and his men opened blank fire to scare away the crowd.
She sustained a leg injury when her supporters tried to rush her to safety from the militants.
After these two daring attacks on police officers and a politician, Norok parted ways with ANVC-B and formed UALA.
He also brought in former GNLA general secretary Novembirth Marak into the fold.
The UALA, which drew a sizeable number of recruits from neighbouring Assam, tried to tap into the disenchantment between the Garos and Rabhas over announcement of polls to the Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAC) in Assam.
The Garos in Assam had been opposing the inclusion of their villages in the autonomous council.
On the night of November 3, 2013, as the people of Assam were celebrating Diwali, the UALA was preparing to unleash terror.
Their target was a remote village, Gendabari, 50 km from Goalpara town.
Villagers were relishing sweetmeats at a tea stall near Gendabari lower primary school when a group of armed UALA rebels dressed in fatigues opened indiscriminate fire around 8 pm.
Six villagers were killed on the spot while another succumbed to injuries at Guwahati Medical College Hospital. All the victims were Rabhas.
With police from both Assam and Meghalaya hot on the trail of the UALA militants, its chairman Novembirth Marak decided to raise the white flag and smoke the peace pipe with the government. Norok refused to play ball.
His absence from peace talks with the government and interlocutors and the fact that the disbanding ceremony had to be put off three times due to his absence indicated his intention.
Norok attended the ceremony but had already chalked out a different road map for himself. The militant leader hid a sizeable number of arms from police.
Last year, East Garo Hills police intercepted a cache of weapons and ammunition that were being shipped to GNLA and seized several lakhs of rupees that was paid for the weapons.
With a red alert against him, Norok slipped into Assam and began the process of forming a new militant group with the support of NDFB, ULFA and a section of UALA which, according to police, had already been named as United A’chik National Front.
Police sources said both Meghalaya and Assam police raised the terror alert after their respective intelligence agencies indicated that Norok had already brought into the fold a number of Bodo militants from the disbanded NDFB outfit in Assam and joined hands with a wanted Garo criminal William Sangma, who once floated the A’chik Liberation Co-operative Army.
William, who was arrested for a string of criminal activities including an attack on an unarmed policeman on Kherapara road, between Tura and Dalu, escaped from the Mendipathar police lock-up after overpowering the guard.
This week, Assam and Meghalaya police came close to nabbing both Norok and William while they were taking shelter in Kaldang on the border of Assam and Garo Hills.
The rebels managed to escape after spotting the approaching Assam police personnel who were in their uniforms. Their luck ran out three days later.
