TURA: A well-oiled inter-state extortion machinery of the two banned rebel outfits, ULFA-GNLA, which has been in operation for the past many months targeting the rich coal belt region of Garo Hills has been busted by a joint team involving Assam and Meghalaya police with the arrest of five persons belonging to the two militant groups.
The top secret operation by security forces from the two states had been on for quite some time after intelligence units from Meghalaya police picked up a trail wherein victims from Garo Hills served with extortion letters, were being made to pay up in Goalpara district of Assam.
The extortion racket was being directly monitored by GNLA chief Sohan D Shira and the ULFA-Independent deputy commander in chief, Manoj Rabha alias Dristi Rajkhowa, both of whom are jointly operating from hideouts in the dense forests of South Garo Hills and West Khasi Hills.
The breakthrough came three days ago when a joint Assam- Meghalaya police team picked up two key ULFA men from Rongjuli town, near Dudhnoi.
Both arrested men had been providing logistics support to Dristi Rajkhowa and collecting the extortion money from the victims of Garo Hills inside Assam territory.
The operation led to further arrests of three GNLA men from Williamnagar in East Garo Hills.
The modus operandi was such that GNLA overground workers would identify potential victims, in this case coal dealers and other businessmen, in the Nangalbibra-Jadigittim coal region of South Garo Hills.
After getting their demand across, the victims would be directed to pay the money in Assam where ULFA collaborators would be waiting.
“These militants were conducting the extortion racket in this manner to avoid detection in Garo Hills because many a time the delivery of extortion money had been successfully intercepted by us,” revealed Meghalaya Director General of Police (DGP) S B Singh.
The two ULFA collaborators in police net have been identified as Simanta Rabha and Kusho Rabha of Rongjuli, Goalpara district in Assam.
The arrested GNLA members are Killer Sangma alias Tengbat, Anthony and Nobin.
Among the five in the police net, Kusho Rabha and Killer Sangma were lodged in GNLA camps some time ago.
Both had narrowly escaped during the encounter with Police at Dimit village in West Khasi Hills on August 16 last in which a large amount of ammunition was recovered, revealed Garo Hills police.
Garo Hills police do not rule out a substantial amount in the tune of several lakh rupees having gone into the coffers of the rebel groups by way of the extortion racket of the finance wing of the rebel outfits.