TURA: The personal security officer of Education Minister Deborah Marak has been injured after highway robbers fired at him during a robbery on the national highway in East Garo Hills late Saturday night.
The minister’s PSO, Dalsrang Momin, was escorting a truck laden with CGI sheets meant for distribution to beneficiaries of the minister’s constituency when the incident took place at around 2:30 AM.
The truck and the Alto car which the PSO was driving had just crossed Wageasi in North Garo Hills when they were stopped at Mondobu, under Rongmil police outpost of East Garo Hills, by a gang of dacoits who were robbing the occupants of other vehicles ahead.
The criminals ordered the driver of the car to come out of the vehicle and while searching him for money and other valuables found him carrying a government allotted handgun. One of the criminals who were holding a country-made shotgun panicked and opened fire hitting the PSO with pellets on the face and upper body.
Fearing the arrival of more police personnel in their direction they hurriedly snatched whatever they could lay their hands on taking away wallets, watches and mobile phones.
When news reached Wageasi and Rongmil police outpost armed police teams rushed to the area but by then the gang had melted into the darkness.
“The PSO sustained superficial injuries from the pellets and he was brought to Williamnagar civil hospital for medical treatment before being taken to Guwahati for further medical treatment,” informed East Garo Hills police chief Vivekanand Singh. He is reportedly out of danger.
The 195 km long National Highway 62 which begins from Damra near Dudhnoi in Assam passes through North and East Garo Hills areas including Nangalbibra and Baghmara before concluding at Dalu.
The Wageasi-Rongmil-Nangalbibra route of the highway is frequently targeted by criminal gangs to extort money from passing coal trucks and despite police presence and patrolling the menace continues as local goons venture out in the dark hours to try and make a quick buck from passing vehicles.
