TURA: In a never before mindless act in the history of Garo Hills and one quite reminiscent of pre-poll violence in mainland India, suspected militants from the banned GNLA outfit have carried out their most audacious attack during an election campaign ambushing the convoy of the NCP candidate for Williamnagar constituency, Jonathone N Sangma, in a remote village across the Simsang river on Sunday evening by triggering a powerful improvised explosive device(IED) that killed the young candidate and three others in his team.
The daring attack during the campaign trail has sent shockwaves across the state because such an attack has never taken place in the history of the state.
The murder of the contesting candidate is expected to postpone the upcoming polls for Williamnagar constituency with the Election Commission of India soon to give an announcement on the issue.
What perhaps adds suspense to this sordid happening is the presence of a surrendered militant commander of the GNLA who was accompanying the NCP candidate and was killed in the attack.
A dreaded miltiant commander of the banned GNLA, Nikam Ch Momin alias Baichung who unleashed fear and mayham during his stint as area commander of Chokpot region in south Garo Hills, less than two years ago, had surrendered and was campaigning for the NCP candidate in this election when the attack took place.
According to police information about the attack, the 42 year old NCP candidate had gone to Sawilgre village, 14 KMS from Samanda across the Simsang river, for an election campaign on Sunday.
He was returning from the campaign in a convoy of four vehicles when militants triggered a powerful IED blast near Denamgre village, 8 KMS distance from Samanda block headquarters across Simsang river in Samanda, at around 7:20 PM.
The area is plagued with poor telecommunication facilities.
Williamnagar police were first informed of the incident by supporters of Jonathone Sangma shortly after word got out about the attack. Police commandos were rushed to the site but it took over four hours of cautious trekking before the first response teams could communicate back to base from the site of the incident.
According to police sources, when police commandos arrived at the site they found four vehicles of Jonathone Sangma’s campaign tour abandoned. One of the vehicles, a white Mahindra Scorpio, in which the NCP candidate had been travelling was found severely damaged in what was suspected to be an IED blast.
Four bodies, including that of Jonathone Sangma, were found at the site of the ambush while three other members of his team were rescued with injuries sustained in the blast.
Apart from the body of Jonathone Sangma, the body of former GNLA Chokpot commander Baichung Momin was also found alongside the NCP candidate inside the vehicle.
One of the deceased has been identified as Shamin Hassan, the personal security officer of Jonathone Sangma who belonged to 4th MLP Battalion.
The other victim who died in the attack was identified as Cribinath D Shira (38). Earlier reports had indicated a college student was among the victims which proved to be untrue.
The bodies of all four victims were first brought to Samanda health centre while the three injured victims were rushed to Williamnagar civil hospital. All the three injured sustained critical injuries and have been rushed to GNRC hospital in Guwahati on Sunday night itself.
Among the three injured happen to be the driver of the NCP candidate identified as Silman N Sangma (45), while another is his second security guard Noor Abdul Mia of 4th MLP Bn. Both Noor and Shamin hail from Mahendraganj town
The third victim is a retired transport employee Behensing Marak (45)
There are many pressing queries relating to the presence of a surrendered militant leader accompanying Jonathon Sangma on his campaign trail.
Ever since his exit from the GNLA, Baichung had been on the top hit list of the rebel outfit. His shocking presence at a political campaign of the NCP candidate may have emboldened Sohan Shira to order the hit on his former comrade together with Jonathone Sangma who had been a strong critic of the rebel chief since the days of the 2013 election campaign in which the GNLA successfully foiled the victory of Jonathone who was defeated by Deborah after the GNLA used threat and coercion to prevent voters from casting their vote in his favour.