TURA: Five ULFA and GNLA rebels were arrested and an interstate extortion machinery of the two outfits, which was running for the past many months, was busted during an operation carried out recently by Meghalaya and Assam police.
The joint operation was on for some time after intelligence units in the state police picked up the trail from the rebels’ extortion pattern. The outfits targeted the coal belt in Garo Hills and asked victims to deliver money in Assam’s Goalpara district.
The extortion racket was being directly monitored by GNLA chief Sohan D Shira and ULFA-Independent deputy commander in chief Manoj Rabha alias Dristi Rajkhowa, both of whom are jointly operating from hideouts in the forests of South Garo Hills and West Khasi Hills.
The breakthrough came three days ago when the joint team of security forces picked up two key ULFA men from Rongjuli town near Dudhnoi. The duo provided logistics to Rajkhowa and collected money from victims.
The operation led to the arrest 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 and they were directed to deliver the money in Assam.
“These militants were running the extortion racket in this manner to avoid detection in Garo Hills because many a time the delivery of extortion money was intercepted by us,” said Meghalaya Director General of Police SB Singh.
The two ULFA collaborators have been identified as Simanta Rabha and Kusha Rabha of Rongjuli, Goalpara. The GNLA cadres are Pillar Sangma, Philip Sangma and Nobin Sangma.
Kusha and Pillar had earlier escaped an encounter at Dimit village in West Khasi Hills on August 16.
Garo Hills police said the outfits had extorted several lakhs of rupees.
