TURA: A cache of arms and ammunition was recovered by Meghalaya Police commandos following a fierce gun battle with a group of heavily armed militants belonging to the banned Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) at Chokpot area in South Garo Hills district on Sunday night.
Police informed that there were intelligence inputs about movements of GNLA militants in the area, who were believed to have come down from the Durama Hills range towards Chokpot region.
Police Units in Chokpot received a tip-off about the arrival of a large number of armed rebels at Kenia Badimagre village on Sunday night. The village is around 18 kms from Chokpot town and located in the direction of Jetragre and Kakija villages.
When police commandos were approaching Keni Badimagre village at around 10:30 PM GNLA sentries positioned in the village outskirts lit up a torch in their direction and opened fire.
A gun battle ensued which lasted close to ten minutes during which the militants were suspected to have used a powerful light machine gun (LMG) as was evident from the recovery of empty cartridges from the encounter site later.
“Given the sheer ferocity of the gun fight it appears to have been a very big group of militants and the firing from their end was relentless. It appeared they were trying to protect someone very important,” informed a police source.
While police maintain that the rebels were around 14 in number, villagers claim to have seen as many as 21 armed men before the encounter.
“We cannot confirm the presence of GNLA chief Sohan D Shira but there were around 12-14 militants who may have come down from the Durama Hills,” said district police chief Abraham T Sangma.
While there were no casualties on either side, police were able to recover an AK rifle with three magazines and 90 rounds of live ammunition that had been left behind by the fleeing revels. The militants also abandoned a magazine of LMG, a GNLA flag, ammo pouches and camouflage uniforms.
Following a string of surrenders by GNLA rebels from Chokpot region early this year the rebels had abandoned much of the territory under their domination. The rebels once held sway to vast tracts of forest at Chokpot region which was once termed as the worst militancy-affected area of Garo Hills.
It was Chokpot where the militants inflicted killed in cold blood a young mother of four children Josbina Sangma (34) in front of her children in June 2014.